拎 (līn): to lift up, to carry in one's hand

拎 (līn) is a Chinese character meaning “to lift up.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 令 (phonetic). It ranks #2897 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 拎 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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to lift up
  2. to carry in one's hand

Etymology & Origin

拎

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌令 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
拎包党līn bāo dǎng(coll.) purse snatcher
拎起līn qǐto pick up (from the ground with one's hands)
拎包nounlīn bāohandbag or shopping bag (dialect)
3
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

拎 appears in 3 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 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 拎 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

惧jù
0.74111 co-occurrences
赴fù
0.58310 co-occurrences
亡wáng
0.55211 co-occurrences
讲jiǎng
0.52610 co-occurrences
碌lù
0.49614 co-occurrences
恐kǒng
0.48111 co-occurrences
死sǐ
0.45911 co-occurrences
服fú
0.44811 co-occurrences
深shēn
0.44610 co-occurrences
克kè
0.42810 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

拎照镜子,整理一下自己的仪容。

līn zhào jìng zǐ , zhěng lǐ yī xià zì jǐ de yí róng .

Check your appearance in the mirror and tidy yourself up.

少数派Aug 2026

不过第二天,夏斐就拎着行李箱出现了。

bù guò dì èr tiān , xià 斐 jiù līn zhe háng lǐ xiāng chū xiàn le .

However, the very next day, Xia Fei showed up with his suitcase.

爱范儿Aug 2026

第一眼看过去,你看到的不是内饰的整体氛围,而是一个被单独拎出来强调的大红圈。

dì yī yǎn kàn guò qù , nǐ kàn dào de bù shì nèi shì de zhěng tǐ fēn wéi , ér shì yī gè bèi dān dú līn chū lái qiáng diào de dà hóng juān .

At first glance, what you see isn’t the overall ambiance of the interior, but a bright red circle that stands out on its own.

少数派Aug 2026

而洗浴用品,我则会用篮子一起装在桌边小推车的顶层,确保一拎即走。

ér xǐ yù yòng pǐn , wǒ zé huì yòng lán zǐ yī qǐ zhuāng zài zhuō biān xiǎo tuī chē de dǐng céng , què bǎo yī līn jí zǒu .

As for bath products, I keep them all in a basket on the top shelf of the small cart by the table, so they’re ready to grab and go.

少数派May 2026

同时它自带把手的设计,出门随手拎走,方便携带。

tóng shí tā zì dài bǎ shǒu de shè jì , chū mén suí shǒu līn zǒu , fāng biàn xié dài .

Plus, it comes with a built-in handle, so you can easily grab it and take it with you when you head out—it’s convenient to carry.

StheadlineMar 2026

...陷低潮 办生前追思会克服死亡恐惧“将死亡拎出来讲!” 将赴深圳求医寻生机

. . . xiàn dī cháo bàn shēng qián zhuī sī huì kè fú sǐ wáng kǒng jù jiāng sǐ wáng līn chū lái jiǎng ! jiāng fù shēn 圳 qiú yī xún shēng jī

... Fall into a low ebb, hold a memorial service before death, overcome the fear of death, "Take death out and talk!" Will go to Shenzhen to seek medical treatment and find a chance to survive

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced līn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拎 (līn) mean in Chinese?
拎 (līn) primarily means "to lift up." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2897 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 拎 and 下?
拎 (līn) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 拎 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 拎 have?
拎 is written with 8 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 拎?
The radical associated with 拎 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拎?
拎 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 令 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌令 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拎?
Common words with 拎 include: 拎包党 (līn bāo dǎng, "(coll.) purse snatcher"); 拎起 (līn qǐ, "to pick up (from the ground with one's hands)"); 拎包 (līn bāo, "handbag or shopping bag (dialect)"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拎 (līn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation līn: 邻 (neighbor). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拎 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 拎 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 拎 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.