连 (lián): to connect, even

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

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to connect, even

Etymology & Origin

连

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 连

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
连接verblián jiēto link5
连续verblián xùcontinuous5
相连verbxiāng liánto link6
接连verb/adverbjiē liánon end6
连忙adverblián mángpromptly5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
连环nounlián huánchain of rings
牵连verbqiān liánto implicate
连锁adjectivelián suǒto interlock
一连串adjectiveyī lián chuàna succession of
连累verblián leito implicate
连锁店nounlián suǒ diànchain store
连体verblián tǐconjoined (twins)
连同conjunctionlián tóngtogether with
连续剧nounlián xù jùTV series
连任verblián rènto continue in (a political) office
连连adverblián liánrepeatedly
价值连城phrasejià zhí lián chénginvaluable
连衣裙nounlián yī qúna one-piece dress
连贯verblián guànto link up (disparate elements)
连环画nounlián huán huàlianhuanhua (graphic novel)
105
Total compounds
73
As first character
24
As last character
3
As middle character

连 appears in 105 compound words: 73 as the first character, 24 as the last, and 3 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 连 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

接jiē
0.59285,832 co-occurrences
续xù
0.56648,445 co-occurrences
锁suǒ
0.5334,626 co-occurrences
牵qiān
0.4823,126 co-occurrences
载zài
0.4647,530 co-occurrences
绵mián
0.427838 co-occurrences
贯guàn
0.4151,808 co-occurrences
相xiāng
0.40420,232 co-occurrences
两liǎng
0.40410,642 co-occurrences
线xiàn
0.39910,590 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (28)

拔毛连茹bá máo lián rú

variant of 拔茅連茹|拔茅连茹

phrase
兵连祸结bīng lián huò jiéHSK 6+

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

phrase
单连接站dān lián jiē zhànHSK 4+

single attachment station (telecommunications)

phrase
二连浩特ÈrliánhàotèHSK 7+

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

缝缝连连féng féng lián liánHSK 7+

needlework; sewing and mending

phrase
鬼话连篇guǐhuàliánpiānHSK 7+

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

phrase
价值连城jiàzhíliánchéngHSK 4+

highly precious; invaluable; priceless

phrase
叫苦连天jiàokǔliántiānHSK 4+

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

phrase
接二连三jiē èr lián sānHSK 4+

(idiom) one after another; in quick succession

phrase
空话连篇kōnghuàliánpiānHSK 4+

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

phrase
里勾外连lǐ gōu wài liánHSK 7+

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

phrase
连带责任lián dài zé rènHSK 4+

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

phrase

Showing 12 of 28 idioms containing 连.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

连续下了三天雨,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据称连续两年削减..

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小时连夺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

泽连斯基: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

泽连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

泽连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

妳干嘛不穿件连衣裙呢?

Nǐ gànmá bù chuān jiàn liányīqún ne?

Why don't you wear a dress?

Tatoeba

多连达真的回来了?!

Duō lián dá zhēn de huílai le?!

Did Dorenda really come back?!

Tatoeba

我连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

宝宝连走都不会,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 of rings"); 牵连 (qiān lián, "to implicate"); 连锁 (lián suǒ, "to interlock"). There are over 105 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 连 (lián)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lián: 联 (connect, unite), 脸 (face), 练 (to practice), 恋 (to feel attached to), 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 连 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.