捡 (jiǎn): to pick up, to collect, to gather
捡 (jiǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to pick up.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 佥 (phonetic). It ranks #2603 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 捡 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).
Definitions
- to pick up
- to collect
- to gather
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 捡 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 捡拾 | jiǎn shí | to pick up |
| 捡到篮里就是菜 | jiǎn dào lán lǐ jiù shì cài | all is grist that comes to the mill (idiom) |
| 捡了芝麻丢了西瓜 | jiǎn le zhī ma diū le xī guā | to let go of the big prize while grabbing at trifles (idiom) |
| 捡骨 | jiǎn gǔ | bone-gathering, a custom of Fujian and Taiwan in which a son recovers the bones of his deceased father from the grave... |
| 捡尸 | jiǎn shī | (slang) to target an intoxicated person for sexual assault |
| 捡漏 | jiǎn lòu | to repair a leaky roof |
捡 appears in 6 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 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 捡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Example Sentences
他捡起袖子，开始认真地打扫房间。
tā jiǎn qǐ xiù zǐ , kāi shǐ rèn zhēn dì dǎ sǎo fáng jiān .
He rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning the room thoroughly.
红包掉地竟踩着滑走!彰化妇捡走3岁童2千元 强辩是自己的下场曝
hóng bāo diào dì jìng cǎi zhe huá zǒu ! zhāng huà fù jiǎn zǒu 3 suì tóng 2 qiān yuán qiáng biàn shì zì jǐ de xià chǎng pù
The red envelope fell to the ground and slipped away! Changhua woman picked up 2,000 yuan from a 3-year-old child, arguing that it was her own end
...载新钞坠! 玻利维亚空难15死 目击者忙捡钱遭警驱离
. . . zài xīn chāo zhuì ! bō lì wéi yà kōng nán 1 5 sǐ mù jī zhě máng jiǎn qián zāo jǐng qū lí
... Load the new bill falls! 15 people died in a plane crash in Bolivia Witnesses were driven away by the police while picking up money
新竹男捡icash狂刷627元代价4倍 侵占遗失...
xīn zhú nán jiǎn i c a s h kuáng shuā 6 2 7 yuán dài jià 4 bèi qīn zhàn yí shī . . .
Hsinchu man picked up icash and swiped 627 yuan at a cost of 4 times, embezzling and losing...
新闻眼/食安阴霾 卢秀燕心中刺 绿捡到枪
xīn wén yǎn shí ān yīn 霾 卢 xiù yān xīn zhōng cì lǜ jiǎn dào qiāng
News Eye/Food Safety Haze Lu Xiuyan's heart stabbed Green picked up a gun
热/快把记忆体捡回来? 台股4强曝
rè kuài bǎ jì yì tǐ jiǎn huí lái ? tái gǔ 4 qiáng pù
Hot/Quickly pick up the memory back? Taiwan stocks are the top 4 exposed
我俯身捡起了掉在地上的笔。
Wǒ fǔshēn jiǎn qǐ le diào zài dìshàng de bǐ.
I bent over to pick up my pen which had fallen on the floor.
她弯低身子，把钱币捡了起来。
Tā wān dī shēnzi, bǎ qiánbì jiǎn le qǐlai.
She bent down and picked up the coin.
她捡起了一块鹅卵石。
Tā jiǎn qǐ le yīkuài éluǎnshí.
She stooped to pick up a pebble.
从地上捡起这支铅笔。
Cóng dìshang jiǎn qǐ zhè zhī qiānbǐ.
Pick up the pencil from the floor.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 捡 (jiǎn) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 捡 and 下?
How many strokes does 捡 have?
What is the radical of 捡?
What are the components of 捡?
What are common words containing 捡?
What characters sound the same as 捡 (jiǎn)?
Is 捡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 捡 with real-time feedback
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