关 (guān): mountain pass, to close, to shut, to turn off, to confine, to lock (sb) up, to shut (sb in a room, a bird in a cage etc)

关 (guān) is a Chinese character meaning “mountain pass.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丷 (structural) and 天 (structural). It ranks #127 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. mountain pass
  2. to close
  3. to shut
  4. to turn off
  5. to confine
  6. to lock (sb) up
  7. to shut (sb in a room, a bird in a cage etc)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 关

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
关系noun/verbguān xirelation3
关于prepositionguān yúpertaining to3
没关系interjectionméi guān xiit doesn't matter1
有关verb/prepositionyǒu guānto have sth to do with3
关心verbguān xīnto be concerned about3
关键noun/adjectiveguān jiàncrucial point4
无关verbwú guānunrelated5
关注verbguān zhùto pay attention to3
关闭verbguān bìto close5
相关verbxiāng guānrelated5
关联verbguān liánto be related6
至关重要phrasezhì guān zhòng yàoextremely important6
开关nounkāi guānpower switch6
关机verbguān jīto turn off (a machine or device)3
海关nounhǎi guāncustoms (i.e. border crossing inspection)5
关爱verbguān àito show concern and care for6
关怀verbguān huáicare6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
关掉verbguān diàoto switch off
关门verbguān ménto close a door
关上verbguān shàngto close (a door)
无关紧要phrasewú guān jǐn yàoindifferent
关照verbguān zhàoto take care
性关系nounxìng guān xisexual relations
难关nounnán guāndifficulty
机关nounjī guānmechanism
关押verbguān yāto imprison
公关noungōng guānpublic relations
关节nounguān jiéjoint (physiology)
关乎verbguān hūto relate to
关头nounguān tóujuncture
双关nounshuāng guānpun
113
Total compounds
53
As first character
39
As last character
8
As middle character

关 appears in 113 compound words: 53 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 8 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 关 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

键jiàn
0.63226,424 co-occurrences
相xiāng
0.596157,224 co-occurrences
闭bì
0.55235,739 co-occurrences
系xì
0.536157,635 co-occurrences
机jī
0.52164,294 co-occurrences
于yú
0.517133,596 co-occurrences
税shuì
0.5168,858 co-occurrences
押yā
0.5099,624 co-occurrences
注zhù
0.46438,999 co-occurrences
条tiáo
0.45820,502 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (29)

闭关锁国bìguānsuǒguóHSK 5+

to cut off one's country from the outside world

phrase
闭关自守bìguānzìshǒuHSK 5+

to close off the country to the outside world and conduct no trade or exchanges with other countries

phrase
不关痛痒bùguāntòngyǎngHSK 6+

of no consequence; immaterial; unimportant

phrase
公共关系gōnggòng guānxìHSK 3+

public relations

noun
关怀备至guānhuáibèizhìHSK 4+

to show the utmost solicitude; to show somebody every consideration

phrase
关门弟子guān mén dì zǐHSK 2+

last disciple of a master

phrase
关门捉贼guānménzhuōzéiHSK 7+

to capture the enemy by cutting off their escape route

phrase
关税壁垒guān shuì bì lěiHSK 7+

tariff wall

phrase
国际关系guójì guānxìHSK 4+

international relations

noun
过关斩将guòguānzhǎnjiàngHSK 7+

short for 過五關斬六將/过五关斩六将 (guò wǔ guān zhǎn liù jiàng)

phrase
金融机关jīn róng jī guānHSK 6+

financial organization

phrase
紧要关头jǐnyào guāntóuHSK 4+

critical juncture; critical moment

noun

Showing 12 of 29 idioms containing 关.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这次经历让他明白了很多道理,也成长了不少。

Zhè cì jīnglì ràng tā míngbai le hěn duō dàolǐ, yě chéngzhǎng le bùshǎo.

This experience made him understand many truths and grow a lot.

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

扩产也来不及!全球记忆体荒将成AI竞争关键瓶颈 又一矽谷大老发声示警

kuò chǎn yě lái bù jí ! quán qiú jì yì tǐ huāng jiāng chéng A I jìng zhēng guān jiàn píng jǐng yòu yī 矽 gǔ dà lǎo fā shēng shì jǐng

It's too late to expand production! The global memory shortage will become a key bottleneck in AI competition, and another Silicon Valley elder has issued a warning

百度新闻Feb 2026

“新春走基层”国外游客称赞贵州“秒通关”

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng guó wài yóu kè chèn zàn guì zhōu miǎo tōng guān

"New Year at the grassroots level" foreign tourists praise Guizhou for "customs clearance in seconds"

百度新闻Feb 2026

【城事】外滩开关式人墙再次启用,分流客流确保平台上..

chéng shì wài tān kāi guān shì rén qiáng zài cì qǐ yòng , fēn liú kè liú què bǎo píng tái shàng . .

【City Affairs】The Bund switch-type human wall is used again to divert passenger flow to ensure that the platform is ensured:

百度新闻Feb 2026

新冬能·场外音|关尹:超越胜负的拥抱比金牌更可贵

xīn dōng néng chǎng wài yīn guān 尹 chāo yuè shèng fù de yōng bào bǐ jīn pái gēng kě guì

New Winter Energy | Off-Ice Commentary: Guan Yin: An Embrace Beyond Victory and Defeat Is More Precious Than Gold

百度新闻Feb 2026

伊最高领袖称伊朗武器事务“与美国无关”

yī zuì gāo lǐng xiù chèn yī lǎng wǔ qì shì wù yú měi guó mó guān

Iran's Supreme Leader Says Country's Weapons Affairs "Have Nothing to Do with the United States"

Tatoeba

您介不介意我把灯关了?

Nín jiè bù jièyì wǒ bǎ dēng guānle?

Do you mind if I turn off the light?

Tatoeba

可以帮忙关上窗子吗?

Kěyǐ bāngmáng guānshàng chuāngzi ma?

Close the window, will you?

Tatoeba

我想把阅读灯关了,行吗?

Wǒ xiǎng bǎ yuèdú dēng guān le, xíng ma?

I'd like to turn off the reading lamp, is that OK?

Tatoeba

你是不是跟长岛家有关系的?

Nǐ shì bù shì gēn Chángdǎo jiā yǒu guānxì de?

Are you related to the Nagashima family?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced guān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 关 (guān) mean in Chinese?
关 (guān) primarily means "mountain pass." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #127 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 关 and 下?
关 (guān) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 关 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 关 have?
关 is written with 6 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 关?
The radical associated with 关 is 八 (eight). This radical appears in many characters related to eight.
What are the components of 关?
关 is composed of: 丷 (structural), 天 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱丷天 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 关?
Common words with 关 include: 关系 (guān xi, "relation"); 关于 (guān yú, "pertaining to"); 没关系 (méi guān xi, "it doesn't matter"); 有关 (yǒu guān, "to have sth to do with"); 关心 (guān xīn, "to be concerned about"). There are over 113 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 关 (guān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guān: 管 (to take care (of)), 观 (to look at), 官 (official), 馆 (restaurant, hall), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 关 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 关 and the traditional form is 關.

Practice writing 关 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.