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

(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 (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2179 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbguǎi wānto go round a curve6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
guǎi jiǎoto turn a corner
guǎi zhàngcrutches
yòu guǎito abduct
guǎi wān mò jiǎolit. going round the curves and skirting the corners (idiom)
guǎi piànswindle
guǎi màihuman trafficking
guǎi zicrutch
guǎi gùncane
shuāng guǎicrutches
shí guǎi qūShiguai, a district of Baotou City 包頭市|包头市[Bao1 tou2 Shi4], Inner Mongolia
guǎi jiǎo chùstreet corner
xiàng zuǒ guǎito turn left
xiàng yòu guǎito turn right
dà guǎito turn left (Shanghainese)
xiǎo guǎito turn right (Shanghainese)
35
Total compounds
34
As first character
54
As last character
11
As middle character

appears in 35 compound words: 34 as the first character, 54 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

zhǔ
0.688765 co-occurrences
zhàng
0.6503,534 co-occurrences
qué
0.574246 co-occurrences
wān
0.538929 co-occurrences
mài
0.5361,812 co-occurrences
yòu
0.529918 co-occurrences
piàn
0.459378 co-occurrences
0.458396 co-occurrences
zǎo
0.457198 co-occurrences
gùn
0.427312 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

kēngmēngguǎipiànHSK 7+

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

phrase
qī wān bā guǎiHSK 6+

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

phrase
qī wān bā guǎiHSK 7+

variant of 七彎八拐|七弯八拐[qi1 wan1 ba1 guai3]

phrase
qū lǐ guǎi wānHSK 6+

winding and turning (idiom)

phrase
yīquéyīguǎiHSK 7+

to walk with a limp

adjective

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈着孩子的手,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

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,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 35 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拐 (guǎi)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guǎi: 乖 ((of a child) obedient, well-behaved), 怪 (strange, blame). 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.