(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)

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

Native 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 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
noun/verbguān xirelation3
prepositionguān yúpertaining to3
méi guān xiit doesn't matter1
verb/prepositionyǒu guānto have sth to do with3
verbguān xīnto be concerned about3
noun/adjectiveguān jiàncrucial point4
verbwú guānunrelated5
verbguān zhùto pay attention to3
verbguān bìto close5
verbxiāng guānrelated5
verbguān liánto be related6
zhì guān zhòng yàoextremely important6
nounkāi guānpower switch6
guān jīto turn off (a machine or device)3
nounhǎi guāncustoms (i.e. border crossing inspection)5
verbguān àito show concern and care for6
怀verbguān huáicare6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
guān diàoto switch off
guān ménto close a door
guān shàngto close (a door)
guān zhàoto take care
nán guāndifficulty
jī guānmechanism
guān yāto imprison
gōng guānpublic relations
guān jiéjoint (physiology)
guān hūto relate to
guān tóujuncture
shuāng guānpun
guò guānto cross a barrier
100
Total compounds
55
As first character
43
As last character
2
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 55 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 2 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.

0.655107,041 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.64678,228 co-occurrences
0.617472,192 co-occurrences
xiāng
0.605471,672 co-occurrences
0.529192,882 co-occurrences
0.525400,788 co-occurrences
0.51728,872 co-occurrences
zhù
0.509116,364 co-occurrences
shuì
0.50125,485 co-occurrences
tiáo
0.46561,506 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (28)

bìguānsuǒguóHSK 5+

to cut off one's country from the outside world

phrase
bìguānzìshǒuHSK 5+

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

phrase
bùguāntòngyǎngHSK 6+

of no consequence; immaterial; unimportant

phrase
gōnggòng guānxìHSK 3+

public relations

noun
怀guānhuáibèizhìHSK 4+

to show the utmost solicitude; to show somebody every consideration

phrase
guān mén dì zǐHSK 2+

last disciple of a master

phrase
guānménzhuōzéiHSK 7+

to capture the enemy by cutting off their escape route

phrase
guān shuì bì lěiHSK 7+

tariff wall

phrase
guójì guānxìHSK 4+

international relations

noun
guòguānzhǎnjiàngHSK 7+

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

phrase
jīn róng jī guānHSK 6+

financial organization

phrase
jǐnyào guāntóuHSK 4+

critical juncture; critical moment

noun

Showing 12 of 28 idioms containing .

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

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|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

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

您介不介意我把灯了?

Nín jiè bù jièyì wǒ bǎ dēng guānle?

Do you mind if I turn off the light?

Tatoeba

可以帮忙上窗子吗?

Kěyǐ bāngmáng guānshàng chuāngzi ma?

Close the window, will you?

Tatoeba

我想把阅读灯了,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 展?
关 (guān) and 展 (zhǎn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 关 (close) vs 展 (open).
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 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 关 (guān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guān: 观 (to look at), 官 (official), 冠 (hat), 棺 (coffin), 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 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.