廉 (lián): incorruptible, honest, inexpensive

廉 (lián) is a Chinese character meaning “incorruptible.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 广 (structural) and 兼 (structural). It ranks #1801 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. incorruptible
  2. honest
  3. inexpensive

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
威廉proper-nounwēi liánWilliam or Wilhelm (name)
廉价nounlián jiàcheaply-priced
廉耻nounlián chǐhonor and shame
低廉adjectivedī liáncheap
物美价廉phrasewù měi jià liángood quality and cheap
威廉斯堡wēi lián sī bǎoWilliamsburg, Virginia
价廉物美phrasejià lián wù měiinexpensive and of good quality (idiom)
廉洁adjectivelián jiéincorruptible
威廉·莎士比亚wēi lián · shā shì bǐ yàWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616), poet and playwright
清廉adjectiveqīng liánhonest
廉政nounlián zhèngto govern with integrity
清正廉明qīng zhèng lián míngupright and honest
廉政公署proper-nounlián zhèng gōng shǔIndependent Commission Against Corruption, Hong Kong (ICAC)
廉正adjectivelián zhèngupright and honest
廉直lián zhíupright and honest
30
Total compounds
47
As first character
33
As last character
20
As middle character

廉 appears in 30 compound words: 47 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 20 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 廉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

威wēi
0.64667,152 co-occurrences
姆mǔ
0.4887,346 co-occurrences
洁jié
0.4871,336 co-occurrences
价jià
0.4734,056 co-occurrences
署shǔ
0.4484,886 co-occurrences
耻chǐ
0.444261 co-occurrences
孝xiào
0.4272,166 co-occurrences
斯sī
0.42417,112 co-occurrences
忌jì
0.405652 co-occurrences
低dī
0.4023,652 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

反腐倡廉fǎnfǔchàngliánHSK 7+

to fight corruption and uphold integrity; to fight corruption and build a clean government

phrase
价廉物美jiàliánwùměiHSK 7+

inexpensive and of high quality

phrase
礼义廉耻lǐyìliánchǐHSK 7+

the four social bonds (propriety, justice, integrity and honor)

noun
廉政公署Liánzhèng GōngshǔHSK 7+

the Independent Commission Against Corruption; the Commission Against Corruption

物美价廉wùměijiàliánHSK 7+

high quality and inexpensive

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了廉字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le lián zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "廉" in the dictionary.

EttodayMar 2026

两代选秀状元对决! “胖虎”威廉森轰27分助鹈鹕近12战8胜

liǎng dài xuǎn xiù zhuàng yuán duì jué ! pàng hǔ wēi lián sēn hōng 2 7 fēn zhù 鹈 鹕 jìn 1 2 zhàn 8 shèng

A showdown between two No. 1 draft picks! "Big Tiger" Williamson scores 27 points to help the Pelicans win 8 of their last 12 games

TvbsMar 2026

空优尽失不投降! 廉价武器打不对称战 伊朗与美国“比气长”

kōng yōu jǐn shī bù tóu jiàng ! lián jià wǔ qì dǎ bù duì chèn zhàn yī lǎng yǔ měi guó bǐ qì cháng

Despite losing all air superiority, they refuse to surrender! Using low-cost weapons to wage asymmetric warfare, Iran and the U.S. are in a "standoff."

Hk01.comFeb 2026

郑丽文:228彻底沦为政治斗争的廉价工具,是这代台湾人的耻辱

zhèng lí wén : 2 2 8 chè de 沦 wéi zhèng zhì dǒu zhēng de lián jià gōng jù , shì zhè dài tái wān rén de chǐ rǔ

Zheng Liwen: 228 has been completely reduced to a cheap tool for political struggle, which is a shame for this generation of Taiwanese

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

郑丽文:228沦政治斗争廉价工具

zhèng lí wén : 2 2 8 沦 zhèng zhì dǒu zhēng lián jià gōng jù

Zheng Liwen: 228 has become a cheap tool for political struggle

Hk01.comFeb 2026

围标|廉署5年接73宗楼宇维修举报 共拘138人...

wéi biāo lián shǔ 5 nián jiē 7 3 zōng lóu yǔ wéi xiū jǔ bào gòng jū 1 3 8 rén . . .

Bid-rigging|ICAC received 73 building maintenance reports in 5 years and detained a total of 138 people...

Tatoeba

真奇怪,他竟然被安排入住这种廉价酒店。

Zhēn qíguài, tā jìngrán bèi ānpái rùzhù zhèzhǒng liánjià jiǔdiàn.

It is strange that he should be put up at such a cheap hotel.

Tatoeba

你无法用廉价的肉煮出美味的汤。

Nǐ wúfǎ yòng liánjià de ròu zhǔ chū měiwèi de tāng.

You can't make good soup with cheap meat.

Tatoeba

威廉是从巴西来的。他是巴西人。

Wēilián shì cóng Bāxī lái de. tā shì Bāxī rén.

Guilherme is from Brazil. He is Brazilian.

Tatoeba

威廉王子是英国王位第二顺位继承人

Wēilián wángzǐ shì Yīngguó wángwèi dì-èr shùnwèi jìchéngrén

Prince William is second in line to the English throne.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lián

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 廉 (lián) mean in Chinese?
廉 (lián) primarily means "incorruptible." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1801 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 廉 have?
廉 is written with 13 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 廉?
The radical associated with 廉 is 广 (shelter). This radical appears in many characters related to shelter.
What are the components of 廉?
廉 is composed of: 广 (structural), 兼 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸广兼 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 廉?
Common words with 廉 include: 威廉 (wēi lián, "William or Wilhelm (name)"); 廉价 (lián jià, "cheaply-priced"); 廉耻 (lián chǐ, "honor and shame"); 低廉 (dī lián, "cheap"); 物美价廉 (wù měi jià lián, "good quality and cheap"). There are over 30 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 廉 (lián)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lián: 联 (connect, unite), 连 (to connect, even), 脸 (face), 练 (to practice), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 廉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 廉 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 廉 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.