娟 (juān): beautiful, graceful

娟 (juān) is a Chinese character meaning “beautiful.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (semantic) and 肙 (phonetic). It ranks #4235 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 娟 woman. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 她 (tā, she), 好 (hǎo, good).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. beautiful
  2. graceful

Etymology & Origin

娟

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女肙 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
娟秀adjectivejuān xiùbeautiful
郑幸娟zhèng xìng juānZheng Xingjuan (1989–), Chinese female high jumper
婵娟chán juān(literary) beautiful woman
3
Total compounds
33
As first character
67
As last character
0
As middle character

娟 appears in 3 compound words: 33 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

继邓丽娟夺金之后,湖南黄金队再添一枚金牌,成为本站赛事最大赢家。

jì dèng lì juān duó jīn zhī hòu , hú nán huáng jīn duì zài tiān yī méi jīn pái , chéng wéi běn zhàn sài shì zuì dà yíng jiā .

Following Deng Lijuan’s gold medal win, the Hunan Gold Team added another gold medal, making it the biggest winner of this event.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

曾经的缝纫女工陈利娟便是这套培育体系的受益者。

céng jīng de féng 纫 nǚ gōng chén lì juān biàn shì zhè tào péi yù tǐ xì de shòu yì zhě .

Chen Lijuan, a former sewing factory worker, is one of the beneficiaries of this training system.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

台南艺术大学扬琴教师林佩娟说,深厚的传统文化是民乐创作的灵感宝库。

tái nán yì shù dà xué yáng qín jiào shī lín pèi juān shuō , shēn hòu de chuán tǒng wén huà shì mín lè chuàng zuò de líng gǎn bǎo kù .

Lin Pei-juan, a yangqin instructor at Tainan National University of the Arts, said that a rich traditional culture serves as a treasure trove of inspiration for the creation of folk music.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

陈娟玲坦言,喜马拉雅山脉太大、资源太丰富、也太深厚了,《幻山》只是掀开了一角。

chén juān líng tǎn yán , xǐ mǎ lā yǎ shān mài tài dà , zī yuán tài fēng fù , yě tài shēn hòu le , huàn shān zhī shì xiān kāi le yī jiǎo .

Chen Juanling admitted that the Himalayas are simply too vast, too rich in resources, and too profound—*Phantom Mountain* has merely scratched the surface.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

中国气象局国家气候中心首席预报员陈丽娟建议,出门前看好气象预警信号。

zhōng guó qì xiàng jú guó jiā qì hòu zhōng xīn shǒu xí yù bào yuán chén lì juān jiàn yì , chū mén qián kàn hǎo qì xiàng yù jǐng xìn hào .

Chen Lijuan, chief forecaster at the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration, recommends checking weather warnings before heading out.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 女 (woman) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced juān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 娟 (juān) mean in Chinese?
娟 (juān) primarily means "beautiful." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4235 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 娟 and 恶?
娟 (juān) and 恶 (è) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 娟 (beautiful) vs 恶 (ugly).
How many strokes does 娟 have?
娟 is written with 10 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 娟?
The radical associated with 娟 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 娟?
娟 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 肙 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女肙 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 娟?
Common words with 娟 include: 娟秀 (juān xiù, "beautiful"); 郑幸娟 (zhèng xìng juān, "Zheng Xingjuan (1989–), Chinese female high jumper"); 婵娟 (chán juān, "(literary) beautiful woman"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 娟 (juān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation juān: 捐 (to relinquish). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 娟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 娟 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 娟 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.