(lián): connect, unite

(lián) is a Chinese character meaning “connect, unite.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #356 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, ear. Its radical form (ear) appears in many related characters such as (wén, to hear, to smell), (zhí, job, duty), (ěr, ear).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. connect, unite

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticear

Decomposition: ⿰耳关 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verblián xìvariant of 聯繫|联系[lian2 xi4]4
verb/adjectivelián héto combine5
verbguān liánto be related6
nounhù lián wǎngInternet4
verblián xiǎngto associate (cognitively)6
verblián wǎngto connect (or be connected) to a network6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lián bāngfederal
lián méngalliance
lián luòto get in touch with
sū liánSoviet Union, 1922-1991
lián hé guóUnited Nations
lián sài(sports) league
lián yì huìassociation
lián shǒulit. to join hands
lián hé huìfederation
lián xì réncontact person
lián bōto broadcast over a network
lián jiéto combine
lián duìwing (of an air force)
lián yìfriendship
lián yīnrelated by marriage
100
Total compounds
60
As first character
33
As last character
7
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 60 as the first character, 33 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.692284,952 co-occurrences
bāng
0.683244,647 co-occurrences
méng
0.635229,439 co-occurrences
lào
0.58874,550 co-occurrences
0.581440,761 co-occurrences
sài
0.579241,866 co-occurrences
0.54174,898 co-occurrences
wǎng
0.50475,966 co-occurrences
0.474152,166 co-occurrences
lóng
0.46210 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

Fēizhōu LiánméngHSK 7+

African Union

Guójì LiánméngHSK 7+

League of Nations

Guójì ZúliánHSK 4+

short for 國際足球協會/国际足球协会 (Guójì Zúqiú Xiéhuì, “FIFA”)

hù lián wǎng zhànHSK 4+

Internet site

phrase
LiánbāngdéguóHSK 7+

West Germany; Federal Republic of Germany

liánbāng zhèngfǔHSK 7+

federal government

noun
liánhé zhèngfǔHSK 5+

coalition government

noun
miǎn diàn lián bāngHSK 7+

Union of Myanmar, official name of Burma 1998-2010

phrase
Ōuzhōu LiánméngHSK 7+

European Union

西xī ōu lián méngHSK 7+

Western European Union (WEU)

phrase
fúxiǎngliánpiānHSK 6+

thoughts flooding one’s mind; imagination coming in close succession

phrase
zhūliánbìhéHSK 6+

perfect pair; happy combination

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

系相关部门,协调解决这个问题。

Qǐng liánxì xiāngguān bùmén, xiétiáo jiějué zhè gè wèntí.

Please contact the relevant departments to coordinate and solve this problem.

百度新闻Feb 2026

合国:收到伊朗来信 对地区紧张局势深表关...

lián gě guó : shōu dào yī lǎng lái xìn duì dì qū jǐn zhāng jú shì shēn biǎo guān . . .

United Nations: Received a letter from Iran expressing deep concern about regional tensions...

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国向合国支付1.6亿美元部分欠款,仅为其约2...

měi guó xiàng lián gě guó zhī fù 1 . 6 yì měi yuán bù fēn qiàn kuǎn , jǐn wéi qí yuē 2 . . .

The United States paid the United Nations $160 million in partial arrears, only about 2...

百度新闻Feb 2026

“新春走基层”为了不失的信号

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng wéi le bù shī lián de xìn hào

"New Year to the grassroots" is a signal not to lose contact

百度新闻Feb 2026

美股三大期指集体走高 美储将公布1月会议纪要|今..

měi gǔ sān dà qī zhǐ jí tī zǒu gāo měi lián chǔ jiāng gōng bù yuè huì yì jì yāo jīn . .

The three major U.S. stock futures indexes are collectively higher The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its January meeting | Today...

百度新闻Feb 2026

一卷春风三地书 2026福建省春节欢晚会绘万里风..

yī juǎn chūn fēng sān dì shū fú jiàn shěng chūn jié lián huān wǎn huì huì mò lǐ fēng . .

A Volume of Spring Breeze and Three Books 2026 Fujian Provincial Spring Festival Gala Painting Miles of Wind...

Tatoeba

学家研究什么呢?

Sūlián xué jiā yánjiū shénme ne?

What does a Sovietologist study?

Tatoeba

汤姆那里有系过你吗?

Tāngmǔ nàli yǒuliánxì guo nǐ ma?

Have you heard from Tom?

Tatoeba

全世界无产者,合起来!

Quánshìjiè wúchǎnzhě, liánhé qǐlai!

Workers of the world, unite!

Tatoeba

我希望我们能保持系。

Wǒ xīwàng wǒmen néng bǎochí liánxì.

I hope we stay in touch.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lián

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 联 (lián) mean in Chinese?
联 (lián) primarily means "connect, unite." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #356 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 联 have?
联 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 联?
The radical associated with 联 is 耳 (ear). This radical appears in many characters related to ear.
What are the components of 联?
联 is composed of: 耳 (semantic), 关 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰耳关 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 联?
Common words with 联 include: 联系 (lián xì, "variant of 聯繫|联系[lian2 xi4]"); 联邦 (lián bāng, "federal"); 联盟 (lián méng, "alliance"); 联络 (lián luò, "to get in touch with"); 联合 (lián hé, "to combine"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 联 (lián)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lián: 连 (to connect, even), 帘 (flag used as a shop sign), 怜 (to pity), 莲 (lotus), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 联 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 联 and the traditional form is 聯.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.