(lián): to connect, even

(lián) is a Chinese character meaning “to connect, even.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #399 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a cart 车 moving 辶 goods between cities. Its radical form (walk) appears in many related characters such as (biān, side), (guò, to pass, past), (hái, still, return).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to connect, even

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA cart 车 moving 辶 goods between cities

Decomposition: ⿺辶车 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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 jiēto link5
verblián xùcontinuous5
verbxiāng liánto link6
verb/adverbjiē liánon end6
adverblián mángpromptly5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lián huánchain
qiān liánto implicate
lián suǒto interlock
lián leito implicate
lián tǐconjoined (twins)
lián tóngtogether with
lián rènto continue in (a political) office
lián liánrepeatedly
lián guànto link up (disparate elements)
lián duìcompany (of troops)
lián yèthat very night
lián jiévariant of 聯結|联结[lian2 jie2]
lián tōngto connect
yī liánin a row
lián dàito be related
100
Total compounds
71
As first character
24
As last character
5
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 71 as the first character, 24 as the last, and 5 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.

0.665144,979 co-occurrences
jiē
0.600257,496 co-occurrences
fēng
0.55717 co-occurrences
suǒ
0.54113,878 co-occurrences
qiān
0.4849,382 co-occurrences
zài
0.47122,590 co-occurrences
mián
0.4332,514 co-occurrences
guàn
0.4215,424 co-occurrences
xiāng
0.41060,696 co-occurrences
liǎng
0.41031,926 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (27)

bīng lián huò jiéHSK 6+

ravaged by successive wars; war-torn; war-ridden

phrase
dān lián jiē zhànHSK 4+

single attachment station (telecommunications)

phrase
ÈrliánhàotèHSK 7+

Erenhot (a county-level city of Xilingol, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, China)

féng féng lián liánHSK 7+

needlework; sewing and mending

phrase
guǐhuàliánpiānHSK 7+

to talk a lot of nonsense; to tell a series of untruths

phrase
jiàzhíliánchéngHSK 4+

highly precious; invaluable; priceless

phrase
jiàokǔliántiānHSK 4+

to be full of complaints; to complain to high heaven; to complain bitterly

phrase
kōnghuàliánpiānHSK 4+

endless pages of empty verbiage; long talk with no real substance

phrase
lǐ gōu wài liánHSK 7+

to act from inside in coordination with attackers outside; attacked from both inside and out

phrase
lián dài zé rènHSK 4+

to bear joint responsibility for sth; joint liability (law)

phrase
liángǔndàipáHSK 5+

rolling and crawling (describes a scene in which people are chaotically fleeing every which way from danger)

phrase
liánmiánbùjuéHSK 7+

to be continuous; to be unceasing; to be ceaseless; to be unending; to be uninterrupted

phrase

Showing 12 of 27 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

续下了三天雨,路上到处都是积水。

Liánxù xià le sān tiān yǔ, lù shang dàochù dōu shì jīshuǐ.

It has rained for three consecutive days; there is water everywhere on the roads.

百度新闻Feb 2026

豪赌AI却让普通员工买单?Meta据称续两年削减..

háo dǔ A I què ràng pǔ tōng yuán gōng mǎi dān ? M e t a jù chèn lián xù liǎng nián xiāo jiǎn . .

Gambling on AI but making ordinary employees pay? Meta is said to have cut for two consecutive years:

百度新闻Feb 2026

不到30小时夺3金!他们的每一滴热泪,都写着“值..

bù dào 3 0 xiǎo shí lián duó 3 jīn ! tā men de měi yī dī rè lèi , dōu xiě zhe zhí . .

Win 3 gold medals in less than 30 hours! Every tear they shed was written "Value:

百度新闻Feb 2026

斯基:对白俄罗斯总统实施制裁!俄美乌三方...

zé lián sī jī duì bái é luó sī zǒng tǒng shí shī zhì cái ! é měi wū sān fāng . . .

Zelensky: Sanctions against the President of Belarus! Russia, the United States and Ukraine tr...

百度新闻Feb 2026

斯基表示遭袭击越多越难达成协议

zé lián sī jī biǎo shì zāo xí jī yuè duō yuè nán dá chéng xié yì

Zelenskyy stated that the more attacks there are, the harder it becomes to reach an agreement.

百度新闻Feb 2026

斯基称乌克兰对白俄罗斯总统实施制裁

zé lián sī jī chèn wū kè lán duì bái é luó sī zǒng tǒng shí shī zhì cái

Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine has imposed sanctions on the President of Belarus.

Tatoeba

妳干嘛不穿件衣裙呢?

Nǐ gànmá bù chuān jiàn liányīqún ne?

Why don't you wear a dress?

Tatoeba

达真的回来了?!

Duō lián dá zhēn de huílai le?!

Did Dorenda really come back?!

Tatoeba

做梦也没有想过乔治会骗我。

Wǒ lián zuòmèng yě méiyǒu xiǎng guo Qiáozhì huì piàn wǒ.

Never did I dream that George would cheat me.

Tatoeba

宝宝走都不会,更何况是跑。

Bǎobǎo lián zǒu dōu bù huì, gèng hékuàng shì pǎo.

The baby can't walk, much less run.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced lián

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 连 (lián) mean in Chinese?
连 (lián) primarily means "to connect, even." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #399 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 连 have?
连 is written with 7 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 连?
The radical associated with 连 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 连?
连 is composed of: 辶 (structural), 车 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶车 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 连?
Common words with 连 include: 连接 (lián jiē, "to link"); 连续 (lián xù, "continuous"); 连环 (lián huán, "chain"); 牵连 (qiān lián, "to implicate"); 连锁 (lián suǒ, "to interlock"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 连 (lián)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lián: 帘 (flag used as a shop sign), 怜 (to pity), 莲 (lotus), 联 (connect, unite), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 连 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 连 and the traditional form is 連.

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.