澜 (lán): swelling water

澜 (lán) is a Chinese character meaning “swelling water.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 阑 (phonetic). It ranks #2624 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 澜 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. swelling water

Etymology & Origin

澜

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵阑 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
波澜nounbō lánbillows
力挽狂澜phraselì wǎn kuáng lánto pull strongly against a crazy tide (idiom)
推波助澜phrasetuī bō zhù lánto push the wave and add to the billows (idiom)
观澜湖guān lán húMission Hills Group (Chinese hospitality, sports and leisure company)
波澜老成bō lán lǎo chéngsplendid and powerful (of story)
波澜起伏bō lán qǐ fúone climax follows another (of thrilling story)
澜沧拉祜族自治县proper-nounlán cāng lā hù zú zì zhì xiànLancang Lahu Autonomous County, in Pu'er City 普洱市, Yunnan
波澜壮阔phrasebō lán zhuàng kuòsurging forward with great momentum
杨澜yáng lánYang Lan (1968-), Chinese media proprietor, journalist, and talk show hostess
澜沧江proper-nounlán cāng jiāngLancang River, the upper course (in southwestern China) of the Mekong River 湄公河
澜沧县lán cāng xiànsee 瀾滄拉祜族自治縣|澜沧拉祜族自治县
澜沧lán cāngsee 瀾滄拉祜族自治縣|澜沧拉祜族自治县
12
Total compounds
33
As first character
33
As last character
33
As middle character

澜 appears in 12 compound words: 33 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 33 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 澜 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

沧cāng
0.7041,567 co-occurrences
挽wǎn
0.565183 co-occurrences
灿càn
0.522162 co-occurrences
观guān
0.458910 co-occurrences
肇zhào
0.450194 co-occurrences
涛tāo
0.440128 co-occurrences
阔kuò
0.433132 co-occurrences
惊jīng
0.421136 co-occurrences
潇xiāo
0.41830 co-occurrences
壮zhuàng
0.418130 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

波澜老成bō lán lǎo chéngHSK 7+

splendid and powerful (of story); majestic; awesome

phrase
波澜壮阔bōlánzhuàngkuòHSK 7+

magnificent; grandiose; forceful

phrase
力挽狂澜lìwǎnkuánglánHSK 7+

to try hard to save a desperate crisis; to do one's utmost to save a desperate situation

phrase
推波助澜tuībōzhùlánHSK 7+

to aggravate an already undesirable situation; to add fuel to the fire

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

暴雨过后,澜水上涨,淹没了低洼的街道。

bào yǔ guò hòu , lán shuǐ shǎng zhǎng , yān méi le dī 洼 de jiē dào .

After the downpour, the Lan River swelled, flooding the low-lying streets.

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

连续三年独家冠名,2026海澜之家无锡马拉松圆满完赛!

lián xù sān nián dú jiā guàn míng , 2 0 2 6 hǎi lán zhī jiā wú xī mǎ lā sōng yuán mǎn wán sài !

After three consecutive years as the exclusive title sponsor, the 2026 Hailan Home Wuxi Marathon has successfully concluded!

InvestingMar 2026

港股异动 | 澜起科技(06809)涨近3% 美光官宣量...

gǎng gǔ yì dòng lán qǐ kē jì ( 0 6 8 0 9 ) zhǎng jìn 3 měi guāng guān xuān liàng . . .

Hong Kong Stock Market Update | Lanchi Technology (06809) Rises Nearly 3% as Micron Announces...

JiemianFeb 2026

...诉求升级!300亿“萝卜章”诈骗案再起波澜,湘财证券涉3.43亿连带赔偿

. . . sù qiú shēng jí ! 3 0 0 yì luó bǔ zhāng zhà piàn àn zài qǐ bō lán , 湘 cái zhèng quàn shè 3 . 4 3 yì lián dài péi cháng

... Appeals escalated! The 30 billion "radish chapter" fraud case has made waves again, and Xiangcai Securities has been involved in 343 million joint and several compensation

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

赣江观澜:从“王勃”开公交,看见怎样的江西?

赣 jiāng guàn lán : cóng wáng bó kāi gōng jiāo , kàn jiàn zěn yàng de jiāng xī ?

Ganjiang Guanlan: From "Wang Bo" to the bus, what kind of Jiangxi do you see?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...回人生主控权...水瓶果断离开、他力挽狂澜

. . . huí rén shēng zhǔ kòng quán . . . shuǐ píng guǒ duàn lí kāi , tā lì wǎn kuáng lán

... Back to the main control of life... Aquarius decisively left, and he turned the tide

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 澜 (lán) mean in Chinese?
澜 (lán) primarily means "swelling water." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2624 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 澜 have?
澜 is written with 15 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 澜?
The radical associated with 澜 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 澜?
澜 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 阑 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵阑 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 澜?
Common words with 澜 include: 波澜 (bō lán, "billows"); 力挽狂澜 (lì wǎn kuáng lán, "to pull strongly against a crazy tide (idiom)"); 推波助澜 (tuī bō zhù lán, "to push the wave and add to the billows (idiom)"); 观澜湖 (guān lán hú, "Mission Hills Group (Chinese hospitality, sports and leisure company)"); 波澜老成 (bō lán lǎo chéng, "splendid and powerful (of story)"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 澜 (lán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lán: 兰 (orchid (蘭花|兰花 Cymbidium goeringii)), 蓝 (blue), 烂 (soft), 拦 (to block sb's path), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 澜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 澜 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 澜 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.