眶 (kuàng): (bound form) eye socket

眶 (kuàng) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) eye socket.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 目 (semantic) and 匡 (phonetic). It ranks #3089 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 眶 eye. Its radical form 目 (eye) appears in many related characters such as 目 (mù, eye), 看 (kàn, to look, to see), 眼 (yǎn, eye).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 目 eye11 strokesFrequency #3089目 semantic匡 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (bound form) eye socket

Etymology & Origin

眶

pictophoneticeye

Decomposition: ⿰目匡 (layout: left-right)

Components:目semantic匡phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
眼眶yǎn kuàngeye socket
热泪盈眶rè lèi yíng kuàngeyes brimming with tears of excitement (idiom)
白眶鹟莺bái kuàng wēng yīng(bird species of China) white-spectacled warbler (Phylloscopus intermedius)
金眶鹟莺jīn kuàng wēng yīng(bird species of China) green-crowned warbler (Phylloscopus burkii)
金眶鸻jīn kuàng héng(bird species of China) little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius)
白眶斑翅鹛bái kuàng bān chì méi(bird species of China) spectacled barwing (Actinodura ramsayi)
白眶雀鹛bái kuàng què méi(bird species of China) Nepal fulvetta (Alcippe nipalensis)
白眶鸦雀bái kuàng yā què(bird species of China) spectacled parrotbill (Suthora conspicillata)
灰眶雀鹛huī kuàng què méi(bird species of China) David's fulvetta (Alcippe davidi)
9
Total compounds
0
As first character
22
As last character
78
As middle character

眶 appears in 9 compound words: 0 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 78 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 眶 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

眼yǎn
0.5895,448 co-occurrences
泪lèi
0.515315 co-occurrences
盈yíng
0.505663 co-occurrences
骨gǔ
0.5031,926 co-occurrences
孔kǒng
0.4751,194 co-occurrences
灯dēng
0.471516 co-occurrences
棘jí
0.448342 co-occurrences
鼻bí
0.440396 co-occurrences
鱼yú
0.427534 co-occurrences
颊jiá
0.42736 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

热泪盈眶rèlèiyíngkuàngHSK 7+

to be moved to tears

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

眶字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。

kuàng zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character "眶" is written is quite unique, and it really left a lasting impression on me.

Character Family

目 Radical Family — Characters sharing the eye radical

睬cǎi瞅chǒu瞪dèng盯dīng督dū睹dǔ盹dǔn睛jīng睐lài瞒mán

Related Characters

目mù看kàn眼yǎn着zhe睡shuì觉jué睛jīng盯dīng相xiāng省shěng

Homophones — Characters pronounced kuàng

框kuàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 眶 (kuàng) mean in Chinese?
眶 (kuàng) primarily means "(bound form) eye socket." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3089 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 眶 have?
眶 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 眶?
The radical associated with 眶 is 目 (eye). This radical appears in many characters related to eye.
What are the components of 眶?
眶 is composed of: 目 (semantic), 匡 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰目匡 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 眶?
Common words with 眶 include: 眼眶 (yǎn kuàng, "eye socket"); 热泪盈眶 (rè lèi yíng kuàng, "eyes brimming with tears of excitement (idiom)"); 白眶鹟莺 (bái kuàng wēng yīng, "(bird species of China) white-spectacled warbler (Phylloscopus intermedius)"); 金眶鹟莺 (jīn kuàng wēng yīng, "(bird species of China) green-crowned warbler (Phylloscopus burkii)"); 金眶鸻 (jīn kuàng héng, "(bird species of China) little ringed plover (Charadrius dubius)"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 眶 (kuàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kuàng: 框 (frame (e.g. door frame)). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 眶 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 眶 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.