贩 (fàn): to deal in, to buy and sell, to trade in

贩 (fàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to deal in.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 贝 (semantic) and 反 (phonetic). It ranks #2383 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 贩 money. Its radical form 贝 (shell) appears in many related characters such as 贵 (guì, expensive), 负 (fù, to bear), 责 (zé, responsibility).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to deal in
  2. to buy and sell
  3. to trade in

Etymology & Origin

贩

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿰贝反 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing 贩 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
毒贩noundú fàndrug dealer
贩毒verbfàn dúto traffic narcotics
贩卖verbfàn màito sell
贩子nounfàn zitrafficker
小贩nounxiǎo fànpeddler
商贩nounshāng fàntrader
人贩子nounrén fàn zihuman trafficker
鱼贩nounyú fànfishmonger
票贩子nounpiào fàn ziticket scalper
摊贩nountān fànstallkeeper
小商贩xiǎo shāng fànsmall trader
贩运verbfàn yùnto transport (for sale)
二道贩子nounèr dào fàn zimiddleman
自动贩卖机zì dòng fàn mài jīvending machine
人口贩运nounrén kǒu fàn yùntrafficking in persons
27
Total compounds
44
As first character
30
As last character
26
As middle character

贩 appears in 27 compound words: 44 as the first character, 30 as the last, and 26 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 贩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

姨yí
0.67217 co-occurrences
摊tān
0.645612 co-occurrences
卖mài
0.6354,015 co-occurrences
毒dú
0.5442,467 co-occurrences
梅méi
0.51217 co-occurrences
奴nú
0.481618 co-occurrences
墨mò
0.44910 co-occurrences
售shòu
0.423876 co-occurrences
隶lì
0.423308 co-occurrences
鸦yā
0.42170 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

贩夫走卒fànfūzǒuzúHSK 7+

population with low social status

phrase
贩卖人口fàn mài rén kǒuHSK 7+

trafficking in human beings

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了贩字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le fàn zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "贩" in the dictionary.

TvbsFeb 2026

百名观光客滞留!墨西哥贩毒集团暴乱 多家航空取消航班

bǎi míng guàn guāng kè zhì liú ! mò xī gē fàn dú jí tuán bào luàn duō jiā háng kōng qǔ xiāo háng bān

Hundreds of tourists are stranded! Mexican drug cartel riots Several airlines canceled flights

BastillepostFeb 2026

墨西哥贩毒集团头目被杀引发骚乱 总统辛鲍姆指现时...

mò xī gē fàn dú jí tuán tóu mù bèi shā yǐn fā sāo luàn zǒng tǒng xīn 鲍 mǔ zhǐ xiàn shí . . .

The killing of the leader of the Mexican drug cartel sparked riots President Sheinbaum pointed out that currently...

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

美军称对一艘“贩毒船”实施打击 打死3人

měi jūn chèn duì yī sōu fàn dú chuán shí shī dǎ jī dǎ sǐ 3 rén

The U.S. military said it had struck a "drug trafficking ship" and killed three people

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

警察变毒贩 欧塞奎拉凶残难捉摸

jǐng chá biàn dú fàn ōu sāi 奎 lā xiōng cán nán zhuō mō

The police turned drug dealer Ossequira was brutal and elusive

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

荣誉观护人提供曾经毒贩第二人生 获厨艺大奖肯定

róng yù guàn hù rén tí gōng céng jīng dú fàn dì èr rén shēng huò chú yì dà jiǎng kěn dìng

Honorary Guardian Provided Second Life of a former drug dealer and was recognized by the Cooking Award

Tatoeba

你们也有贩售咖啡壶配件吗?

Nǐmen yě yǒu fànshòu kāfēihú pèijiàn ma?

Do you sell coffee pot accessories too?

Tatoeba

这台自动贩卖机故障了。

Zhè tái zìdòng fànmàijī gùzhàng le.

This vending machine isn't working.

Tatoeba

然后又把各书名揭示通衢,永远禁止贩卖。

Ránhòu yòu bǎ gè shūmíng jiēshì tōng qú, yǒngyuǎn jìnzhǐ fànmài.

Then they displayed all the book titles publicly and banned their sale forever.

Tatoeba

她在演唱会的场地贩卖毒品。

Tā zài yǎnchànghuì de chǎngdì fànmài dúpǐn.

She's selling drugs at concerts.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 贝 (money) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced fàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 贩 (fàn) mean in Chinese?
贩 (fàn) primarily means "to deal in." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2383 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 贩 and 销?
贩 (fàn) and 销 (xiāo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 贩 (buy) vs 销 (sell).
How many strokes does 贩 have?
贩 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 贩?
The radical associated with 贩 is 贝 (shell). This radical appears in many characters related to shell.
What are the components of 贩?
贩 is composed of: 贝 (semantic), 反 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰贝反 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 贩?
Common words with 贩 include: 毒贩 (dú fàn, "drug dealer"); 贩毒 (fàn dú, "to traffic narcotics"); 贩卖 (fàn mài, "to sell"); 贩子 (fàn zi, "trafficker"); 小贩 (xiǎo fàn, "peddler"). There are over 27 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 贩 (fàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fàn: 饭 (meal, rice), 反 (contrary), 范 (pattern), 烦 (to feel vexed), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 贩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 贩 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 贩 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.