拐 (guǎi): to turn (a corner etc), to kidnap, to swindle

拐 (guǎi) is a Chinese character meaning “to turn (a corner etc).” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (structural) and 另 (structural). It ranks #2179 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 拐 to take another 另 by force 扌. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to turn (a corner etc)
  2. to kidnap
  3. to swindle

Etymology & Origin

拐

ideographicTo take another 另 by force 扌

Decomposition: ⿰扌另 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 拐

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
拐弯verbguǎi wānto go round a curve6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
拐角nounguǎi jiǎoto turn a corner
拐杖nounguǎi zhàngcrutches
诱拐verbyòu guǎito abduct
拐弯抹角phraseguǎi wān mò jiǎolit. going round the curves and skirting the corners (idiom)
拐骗verbguǎi piànswindle
拐卖verbguǎi màihuman trafficking
拐子nounguǎi zicrutch
拐棍nounguǎi gùncane
双拐shuāng guǎicrutches
石拐区shí guǎi qūShiguai, a district of Baotou City 包頭市|包头市, Inner Mongolia
拐角处guǎi jiǎo chùstreet corner
向左拐xiàng zuǒ guǎito turn left
向右拐xiàng yòu guǎito turn right
大拐dà guǎito turn left (Shanghainese)
小拐xiǎo guǎito turn right (Shanghainese)
36
Total compounds
33
As first character
56
As last character
11
As middle character

拐 appears in 36 compound words: 33 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 11 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 拐 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

拄zhǔ
0.693259 co-occurrences
杖zhàng
0.6811,189 co-occurrences
姨yí
0.61810 co-occurrences
瘸qué
0.56682 co-occurrences
卖mài
0.528604 co-occurrences
诱yòu
0.521306 co-occurrences
弯wān
0.509313 co-occurrences
梅méi
0.46810 co-occurrences
骗piàn
0.452126 co-occurrences
抹mǒ
0.451132 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

坑蒙拐骗kēngmēngguǎipiànHSK 7+

to entrap, make blind, swindle and deceive; the various fraud techniques

phrase
七弯八拐qī wān bā guǎiHSK 6+

(idiom) twisting and turning; (idiom) tricky and complicated

phrase
七湾八拐qī wān bā guǎiHSK 7+

variant of 七彎八拐|七弯八拐

phrase
曲里拐弯qū lǐ guǎi wānHSK 6+

winding and turning (idiom)

phrase
一瘸一拐yīquéyīguǎiHSK 7+

to walk with a limp

adjective

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing 拐.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈拐着孩子的手,慢慢地过马路。

mā mā guǎi zhe hái zǐ de shǒu , màn màn dì guò mǎ lù .

Mom held her child's hand and slowly crossed the street.

EttodayMar 2026

...孩子我就收!” 陆人口贩子“梅姨”超冷血拐卖9童当生意

. . . hái zǐ wǒ jiù shōu ! lù rén kǒu fàn zǐ méi yí chāo lěng xiě guǎi mài 9 tóng dāng shēng yì

"...I'll take the kids!" "Aunt Mei," a human trafficker from Lu, callously trafficked nine children as a business

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

暗杀行动火上浇油,中东危局难见拐点

àn shā háng dòng huǒ shàng jiāo yóu , zhōng dōng wēi jú nán jiàn guǎi diǎn

Assassination adds fuel to the fire; no end in sight for the Middle East crisis

Hk01.comFeb 2026

油塘老翁疑用拐杖袭击白鸽惹街坊报案 警发现鸽尸 暂无人...

yóu táng lǎo wēng yí yòng guǎi zhàng xí jī bái gē rě jiē fāng bào àn jǐng fā xiàn gē shī zàn wú rén . . .

The old man in Yau Tong is suspected of attacking the white pigeon with a cane, causing neighbors to report the case, and the police found the pigeon corpse and no one was there...

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

...(159870)收涨超3.5%,化工景气拐点逐渐明朗-FX168

. . . ( 1 5 9 8 7 0 ) shōu zhǎng chāo 3 . 5 , huà gōng jǐng qì guǎi diǎn zhú jiān míng lǎng F X 1 6 8

... (159870) closed up more than 3.5%, and the inflection point of the chemical boom gradually became clear - FX168

東森新聞Feb 2026

恶劣!男疑拐浪浪回家 从5楼抛下画面曝

è liè ! nán yí guǎi làng làng huí jiā cóng 5 lóu pāo xià huà miàn pù

Bad! The man was suspected of abducting Langlang home and dropped the picture from the 5th floor to expose

Tatoeba

绿灯时,拐弯车要让人。

Lǜdēng shí, guǎiwān chē yào ràng rén.

When the light is green, cars turning must yield to pedestrians.

Tatoeba

自从我弄断了两条腿,我就拄着拐杖走路了。

Zìcóng wǒ nòng duàn le liǎng tiáo tuǐ, wǒ jiù zhǔ zhe guǎizhàng zǒulù le.

I'm on crutches since I broke both my legs.

Tatoeba

我的祖父要用拐杖才能走路。

Wǒ de zǔfù yào yòng guǎizhàng cáinéng zǒulù.

My grandfather cannot walk without a stick.

Tatoeba

这个老人拄着一根拐杖走路。

Zhège lǎorén zhǔ zhe yī gēn guǎizhàng zǒu lù.

The old man walked with a stick.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced guǎi

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拐 (guǎi) mean in Chinese?
拐 (guǎi) primarily means "to turn (a corner etc)." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2179 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 拐 have?
拐 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 拐?
The radical associated with 拐 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拐?
拐 is composed of: 扌 (structural), 另 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌另 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拐?
Common words with 拐 include: 拐角 (guǎi jiǎo, "to turn a corner"); 拐杖 (guǎi zhàng, "crutches"); 诱拐 (yòu guǎi, "to abduct"); 拐弯抹角 (guǎi wān mò jiǎo, "lit. going round the curves and skirting the corners (idiom)"); 拐弯 (guǎi wān, "to go round a curve"). There are over 36 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拐 (guǎi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guǎi: 怪 (strange, blame), 乖 ((of a child) obedient, well-behaved). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 拐 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 拐 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.