拦 (lán): to block sb's path, to obstruct, to flag down (a taxi)
拦 (lán) is a Chinese character meaning “to block sb's path.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 兰 (phonetic). It ranks #1969 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 拦 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 block sb's path
- to obstruct
- to flag down (a taxi)
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 拦 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 拦住verb | lán zhù | to stop |
| 拦截verb | lán jié | to intercept |
| 阻拦verb | zǔ lán | to stop |
| 拦路verb | lán lù | to block sb's path |
| 拦路虎noun | lán lù hǔ | stumbling block |
| 拦网 | lán wǎng | to intercept at the net (volleyball, tennis etc) |
| 拦劫verb | lán jié | to mug |
| 拦阻verb | lán zǔ | to block |
| 拦腰 | lán yāo | (hitting) squarely in the middle |
| 广告拦截器 | guǎng gào lán jié qì | ad-blocker |
| 口无遮拦phrase | kǒu wú zhē lán | to blab |
| 拦车verb | lán chē | to thumb a lift |
| 拦检 | lán jiǎn | (of police etc) to stop (sb) for inspection |
| 拦河坝 | lán hé bà | a dam across a river |
| 拦柜 | lán guì | sales counter |
拦 appears in 15 compound words: 80 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 7 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 拦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (1)
Example Sentences
他拦了一个电话，约朋友晚上一起吃饭。
tā lán le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .
He took a call and made plans to meet a friend for dinner that evening.
临沂油站插队风波 女子肉身拦车
lín 沂 yóu zhàn chā duì fēng bō nǚ zǐ ròu shēn lán chē
Linyi gas station jumped the queue turmoil, and the woman stopped the car physically
女子拜拜遇贼翻置物箱 警方迅速拦捕男嫌
nǚ zǐ bài bài yù zéi fān zhì wù xiāng jǐng fāng xùn sù lán bǔ nán xián
The police quickly stopped the male suspect
高雄大寮毒驾冲撞警车 拦腰撞断电杆男女就逮
gāo xióng dà 寮 dú jià chōng zhuàng jǐng chē lán yāo zhuàng duàn diàn gān nán nǚ jiù dǎi
Kaohsiung Daliao's drug driver crashed into a police car and stopped the waist and broke the power pole and arrested the man and woman
空军拦管官涉泄军事资料给中共 二审改判7年
kōng jūn lán guǎn guān shè xiè jūn shì zī liào gěi zhōng gòng èr shěn gǎi pàn 7 nián
The Air Force interception officer was sentenced to 7 years in the second instance for leaking military information to the CCP
最高法院拦不住川普?加征关税被驳回后川普警告他国:...
zuì gāo fǎ yuàn lán bù zhù chuān pǔ ? jiā zhēng guān shuì bèi bó huí hòu chuān pǔ jǐng gào tā guó : . . .
Can't the Supreme Court stop Trump? After the tariffs were rejected, Trump warned other countries: ...
你为什么只拦下了外国人？
Nǐ wèishénme zhǐ lán xià le wàiguórén?
Why did you stop only the foreigners?
我拦不住汤姆把饼干吃完。
Wǒ lán bù zhù Tāngmǔ bǎ bǐnggān chīwán.
I couldn't prevent Tom from eating all the cookies.
暴风雨过后，那条路被倒下来的树拦住了。
Bàofēngyǔ guòhòu, nà tiáo lù bèi dǎoxià lái de shù lánzhù le.
After the storm, the road was blocked with fallen trees.
Character Family
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 拦 (lán) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 拦 and 设?
How many strokes does 拦 have?
What is the radical of 拦?
What are the components of 拦?
What are common words containing 拦?
What characters sound the same as 拦 (lán)?
Is 拦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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