揽 (lǎn): to monopolize, to seize, to take into one's arms, to embrace, to fasten (with a rope etc)

揽 (lǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to monopolize.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 览 (phonetic). It ranks #2634 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 揽 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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to monopolize
  2. to seize
  3. to take into one's arms
  4. to embrace
  5. to fasten (with a rope etc)

Etymology & Origin

揽

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌览 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
招揽verbzhāo lǎnto attract (customers)
一揽子adjectiveyī lǎn ziall-inclusive
包揽verbbāo lǎnto take it all upon oneself
独揽verbdú lǎnto monopolize
大包大揽phrasedà bāo dà lǎnto take complete charge (idiom)
揽客verblǎn kèto solicit customers
总揽verbzǒng lǎnto assume full responsibility
收揽shōu lǎnto win the support of
延揽verbyán lǎnto recruit talent
九天揽月jiǔ tiān lǎn yuè(idiom) to reach for the stars
招揽生意zhāo lǎn shēng yito advertise
独揽市场dú lǎn shì chǎngto monopolize a market
招风揽火zhāo fēng lǎn huǒsee 招風惹草|招风惹草
包揽词讼phrasebāo lǎn cí sòngto canvas for lawsuits (idiom)
揽收lǎn shōu(of a courier) to pick up
22
Total compounds
27
As first character
45
As last character
27
As middle character

揽 appears in 22 compound words: 27 as the first character, 45 as the last, and 27 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 揽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

招zhāo
0.501664 co-occurrences
凌líng
0.47610 co-occurrences
独dú
0.454484 co-occurrences
包bāo
0.4431,382 co-occurrences
夺duó
0.43311 co-occurrences
权quán
0.409386 co-occurrences
胜shèng
0.404292 co-occurrences
承chéng
0.394370 co-occurrences
项xiàng
0.378274 co-occurrences
洪hóng
0.348108 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

包揽词讼bāolǎn císòngHSK 7+

to pettifog; to engage in legal pettifoggery; to practice chicanery

phrase
大包大揽dàbāodàlǎnHSK 7+

to undertake a task (or contract) all by oneself

phrase
招风揽火zhāo fēng lǎn huǒHSK 7+

see 招風惹草|招风惹草

phrase
揽辔澄清lǎn pèi chéng qīngHSK 7+

to assume one's post with the aspiration of bringing about peace and order to the nation (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

揽照镜子,整理一下自己的仪容。

lǎn zhào jìng zǐ , zhěng lǐ yī xià zì jǐ de yí róng .

Take a look in the mirror and tidy up your appearance.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

文化资源赋能新春体验 河南春节假期揽客6281万人次

wén huà zī yuán fù néng xīn chūn tǐ yàn hé nán chūn jié jiǎ qī lǎn kè 6 2 8 1 wàn rén cì

Cultural resources empower the New Year experience Henan attracted 62.81 million visitors during the Spring Festival holiday

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

谷爱凌李方慧包揽冠亚军,中国体育代表团创历史

gǔ ài líng lǐ fāng huì bāo lǎn guàn yà jūn , zhōng guó tǐ yù dài biǎo tuán chuàng lì shǐ

Gu Ailing and Li Fanghui won the championship and runner-up, and the Chinese sports delegation made history

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

谷爱凌U型场地技巧决赛夺金 中国队包揽冠亚军

gǔ ài líng U xíng chǎng dì jì qiǎo jué sài duó jīn zhōng guó duì bāo lǎn guàn yà jūn

Gu Ailing won the gold medal in the U-shaped court skills final, and the Chinese team won the championship and runner-up

StheadlineFeb 2026

...冬奥|谷爱凌夺个人首金强势卫冕 国家队包揽U型场地技巧金银牌

. . . dōng ào gǔ ài líng duó gè rén shǒu jīn qiáng shì wèi 冕 guó jiā duì bāo lǎn U xíng chǎng dì jì qiǎo jīn yín pái

... Winter Olympics|Gu Ailing won her first gold medal and defended her title strongly, and the national team won the gold and silver medals in U-shaped field skills

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

中国队包揽米兰冬奥会自由式滑雪女子U池冠亚军

zhōng guó duì bāo lǎn mǐ lán dōng ào huì zì yóu shì huá xuě nǚ zǐ U chí guàn yà jūn

The Chinese team won the championship and runner-up in the women's U pool in freestyle skiing at the Milan Winter Olympics

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 揽 (lǎn) mean in Chinese?
揽 (lǎn) primarily means "to monopolize." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2634 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 揽 have?
揽 is written with 12 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 揽?
The radical associated with 揽 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 揽?
揽 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 览 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌览 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 揽?
Common words with 揽 include: 招揽 (zhāo lǎn, "to attract (customers)"); 一揽子 (yī lǎn zi, "all-inclusive"); 包揽 (bāo lǎn, "to take it all upon oneself"); 独揽 (dú lǎn, "to monopolize"); 大包大揽 (dà bāo dà lǎn, "to take complete charge (idiom)"). There are over 22 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 揽 (lǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lǎn: 榄 ((bound form) olive), 缆 (cable), 兰 (orchid (蘭花|兰花 Cymbidium goeringii)), 蓝 (blue), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 揽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 揽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 揽 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.