奸 (jiān): wicked, crafty, traitor

奸 (jiān) is a Chinese character meaning “wicked.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 干 (phonetic). It ranks #1965 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 奸 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. wicked
  2. crafty
  3. traitor

Etymology & Origin

奸

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女干 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
强奸verbqiáng jiānto rape
强奸犯nounqiáng jiān fànrapist
通奸verbtōng jiānadultery
内奸nounnèi jiānundiscovered traitor
鸡奸jī jiānvariant of 雞姦|鸡奸
奸情adjectivejiān qíngadultery
奸杀verbjiān shāto rape and murder
捉奸verbzhuō jiānto catch a couple in the act (adultery, illicit sexual relations)
奸细nounjiān xia spy
强奸罪qiáng jiān zuìrape
奸诈adjectivejiān zhàtreachery
轮奸verblún jiānto gang rape
奸夫nounjiān fūmale adulterer
奸笑verbjiān xiàoevil smile
狼狈为奸phraseláng bèi wéi jiānvillains collude together (idiom)
59
Total compounds
51
As first character
36
As last character
14
As middle character

奸 appears in 59 compound words: 51 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 14 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 奸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

锄chú
0.635444 co-occurrences
强qiáng
0.5826,638 co-occurrences
猾huá
0.577404 co-occurrences
狈bèi
0.556104 co-occurrences
狡jiǎo
0.511248 co-occurrences
剔tī
0.495238 co-occurrences
涉shè
0.49410 co-occurrences
诈zhà
0.488308 co-occurrences
酒jiǔ
0.47411 co-occurrences
弊bì
0.459316 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

大奸似忠dà jiān sì zhōngHSK 7+

the most treacherous person appears the most guileless (idiom)

phrase
姑息养奸gū xī yǎng jiānHSK 7+

to tolerate is to nurture an evildoer (idiom); spare the rod and spoil the child

phrase
狼狈为奸lángbèiwéijiānHSK 7+

to act in collusion with each other; to work hand in glove with somebody (to nefarious ends)

phrase
老奸巨猾lǎojiānjùhuáHSK 7+

to be extremely cunning and crafty; to be a wily old fox; to be an old hand at trickery and deception

phrase
朋比为奸péngbǐwéijiānHSK 7+

to conspire; to gang up; to form a faction for evil purposes

phrase
作奸犯科zuòjiānfànkēHSK 7+

to do evil and commit offence(s)

verb
奸夫淫妇jiān fū yín fùHSK 7+

adulterous couple

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

她是一位坚强的奸性,独自抚养两个孩子。

tā shì yī wèi jiān qiáng de jiān xìng , dú zì fǔ yǎng liǎng gě hái zǐ .

She is a strong-willed woman raising two children on her own.

奇客SolidotJul 2026

这名男子是一个交流有关强奸被麻醉女性信息的聊天群组的八名成员之一。

zhè míng nán zǐ shì yī gè jiāo liú yǒu guān qiáng jiān bèi má zuì nǚ xìng xìn xī de liáo tiān qún zǔ de bā míng chéng yuán zhī yī .

The man was one of eight members of a chat group where information about the rape of drugged women was shared.

Am730Mar 2026

消防员迷奸女友人判囚8年半 法官认为对受害者无悔意...

xiāo fáng yuán mí jiān nǚ yǒu rén pàn qiú 8 nián bàn fǎ guān rèn wéi duì shòu hài zhě wú huǐ yì . . .

Firefighter Sentenced to 8½ Years in Prison for Drugging and Raping a Female Friend; Judge Finds No Remorse Toward the Victim...

Hk01.comMar 2026

两工程师涉奸酒醉女 首被告向友称犯咗错 提及有人推开...

liǎng gōng chéng shī shè jiān jiǔ zuì nǚ shǒu bèi gào xiàng yǒu chèn fàn 咗 cuò tí jí yǒu rén tuī kāi . . .

Two engineers accused of raping an intoxicated woman; the first defendant told a friend he had made a mistake and mentioned that someone had pushed her away...

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Mar 2026

与小女友酒店幽会被检举 青年涉强奸遭警逮捕

yǔ xiǎo nǚ yǒu jiǔ diàn yōu huì bèi jiǎn jǔ qīng nián shè qiáng jiān zāo jǐng dǎi bǔ

Young man arrested by police on suspicion of rape after being reported for having a secret rendezvous with his girlfriend at a hotel

Hk01.comFeb 2026

消防员涉奸女友人 事主称喝白酒觉晕醒来得悉搞咗嘢 ...

xiāo fáng yuán shè jiān nǚ yǒu rén shì zhǔ chèn hē bái jiǔ jué yūn xǐng lái dé xī gǎo 咗 嘢 . . .

Firefighter involved in rape with girlfriend The victim said he was drinking liquor and woke up to find out something was wrong...

Tatoeba

据说他的父亲曾经是汉奸。

Jùshuō tā de fùqīn céngjīng shì hànjiān.

Supposedly, his father once betrayed China.

Tatoeba

他认为我们当中有一个奸细。

Tā rènwéi wǒmen dāngzhōng yǒu yī gè jiānxi.

He believes that there is a spy among us.

Tatoeba

这是曹操的奸计。

Zhè shì Cáo Cāo de jiānjì.

This is Cao Cao's trickery.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 奸 (jiān) mean in Chinese?
奸 (jiān) primarily means "wicked." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1965 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 奸 and 赶?
奸 (jiān) and 赶 (gǎn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 走 (same 干 component).
How many strokes does 奸 have?
奸 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 奸?
The radical associated with 奸 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 奸?
奸 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 干 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女干 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 奸?
Common words with 奸 include: 强奸 (qiáng jiān, "to rape"); 强奸犯 (qiáng jiān fàn, "rapist"); 通奸 (tōng jiān, "adultery"); 内奸 (nèi jiān, "undiscovered traitor"); 鸡奸 (jī jiān, "variant of 雞姦|鸡奸"). There are over 59 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 奸 (jiān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiān: 间 (room, between), 见 (to see), 件 (item, matter). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 奸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 奸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 奸 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.