剪 (jiǎn): (bound form) scissors or similar tool, to cut as with scissors, (bound form) to wipe out, to exterminate

剪 (jiǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) scissors or similar tool.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 前 (phonetic) and 刀 (semantic). It ranks #2174 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 剪 knife. Its radical form 刂 (knife) appears in many related characters such as 分 (fēn, to divide), 别 (bié, to leave), 到 (dào, to reach).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) scissors or similar tool
  2. to cut as with scissors
  3. (bound form) to wipe out
  4. to exterminate

Etymology & Origin

剪

pictophoneticknife

Decomposition: ⿱前刀 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 剪

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
剪刀nounjiǎn dāoscissors5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
剪辑nounjiǎn jíto edit (raw footage: film, video, audio etc)
修剪verbxiū jiǎnto prune
剪子nounjiǎn ziclippers
剪报verbjiǎn bàonewspaper cutting
剪接verbjiǎn jiēto edit (raw footage: film, video, audio etc)
剪裁verbjiǎn cáito tailor (clothes)
剪彩verbjiǎn cǎito cut the ribbon (at a launching or opening ceremony)
裁剪verbcái jiǎnto cut out
剪切verbjiǎn qiēto cut (with scissors or similar tool)
剪纸nounjiǎn zhǐpapercutting (Chinese folk art)
剪影nounjiǎn yǐngpaper-cut silhouette
剪草机nounjiǎn cǎo jīlawnmower
指甲剪nounzhǐ jia jiǎnnail clipper
剪除verbjiǎn chúto eradicate
剪贴板nounjiǎn tiē bǎn(computing) clipboard
47
Total compounds
74
As first character
15
As last character
11
As middle character

剪 appears in 47 compound words: 74 as the first character, 15 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 剪 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

辑jí
0.5769,813 co-occurrences
刀dāo
0.5143,587 co-occurrences
辫biàn
0.502172 co-occurrences
黏nián
0.460564 co-occurrences
纸zhǐ
0.4541,084 co-occurrences
佳jiā
0.4515,034 co-occurrences
掉diào
0.4411,352 co-occurrences
票piào
0.4404,718 co-occurrences
裁cái
0.4261,850 co-occurrences
切qiē
0.4192,356 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

剪草除根jiǎn cǎo chú gēnHSK 5+

lit. cut grass and pull out roots (idiom); fig. to destroy root and branch; to eradicate

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

剪字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

jiǎn zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The usage of "剪字" varies depending on the context.

三立新聞網Mar 2026

阿公店约谈判2打8 他持剪刀狂刺助友突围

ā gōng diàn yuē tán pàn 2 dǎ 8 tā chí jiǎn dāo kuáng cì zhù yǒu tū wéi

A man in Agongdian arranged a 2-on-8 fight; he stabbed wildly with a pair of scissors to help his friend break free.

99 健康网Mar 2026

少女第一次做ae一般多少秒正常?熬夜剪辑会扰乱褪黑素和激素节律吗

shǎo nǚ dì yī cì zuò a e yī bān duō shǎo miǎo zhèng cháng ? āo yè jiǎn jí huì rǎo luàn 褪 hēi sù hé jī sù jié lǜ ma

How many seconds is normal for a girl to do AE for the first time? Does staying up late to edit disrupt melatonin and hormone rhythms?

StheadlineFeb 2026

倪晨曦沉迷学AI剪片与时并进 惊喜荣登KOL三甲归功分享症...

倪 chén 曦 chén mí xué A I jiǎn piàn yǔ shí bìng jìn jīng xǐ róng dēng K O L sān jiǎ guī gōng fēn xiǎng zhèng . . .

Ni Chenxi is addicted to learning AI film editing to keep pace with the times, and is surprised to be ranked among the top three KOLs...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

Brian讲《夜王》被剪爆金句:啲波Cut晒,好多人想睇Renc...

B r i a n jiǎng yè wáng bèi jiǎn bào jīn jù : 啲 bō C u t shài , hǎo duō rén xiǎng 睇 R e n c . . .

Brian said that "The Night King" was cut to pieces: "The ball is cut, and many people want to see Renc...

百度新闻Feb 2026

小伙出售前女友送的银手镯,剪开发现内芯为30克高纯..

xiǎo huǒ chū shòu qián nǚ yǒu sòng de yín shǒu 镯 , jiǎn kāi fā xiàn nèi xīn wéi 3 0 kè gāo chún . .

The guy sold the silver bracelet given by his ex-girlfriend, and when he cut it, he found that the inner core was 30 grams of high purity:

Tatoeba

杰伊捡起了这把旧剪刀。

Jié yī jiǎn qǐ le zhè bǎ jiù jiǎndāo.

Jay picked up the old scissors.

Tatoeba

汤姆帮玛丽剪头发。

Tāngmǔ bāng Mǎlì jiǎntóufa.

Tom cut Mary's hair for her.

Tatoeba

我能借用你的剪刀吗?

Wǒ néng jièyòng nǐ de jiǎndāo ma?

Can I borrow your scissors?

Tatoeba

你想将头发剪成怎样?

Nǐ xiǎng jiāng tóufa jiǎnchéng zěnyàng?

How do you want your hair cut?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 刀 (knife) component

刂 Radical Family — Characters sharing the knife radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 剪 (jiǎn) mean in Chinese?
剪 (jiǎn) primarily means "(bound form) scissors or similar tool." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2174 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 剪 have?
剪 is written with 11 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 剪?
The radical associated with 剪 is 刂 (knife). This radical appears in many characters related to knife.
What are the components of 剪?
剪 is composed of: 前 (phonetic), 刀 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱前刀 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 剪?
Common words with 剪 include: 剪刀 (jiǎn dāo, "scissors"); 剪辑 (jiǎn jí, "to edit (raw footage: film, video, audio etc)"); 修剪 (xiū jiǎn, "to prune"); 剪子 (jiǎn zi, "clippers"); 剪报 (jiǎn bào, "newspaper cutting"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 剪 (jiǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiǎn: 间 (room, between), 见 (to see), 件 (item, matter), 建 (to establish), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 剪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 剪 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 剪 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.