领 (lǐng): neck, collar, to lead

领 (lǐng) is a Chinese character meaning “neck.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 令 (phonetic) and 页 (semantic). It ranks #329 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 领 head. Its radical form 页 (page) appears in many related characters such as 页 (yè, page), 顺 (shùn, to obey), 须 (xū, must).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. neck
  2. collar
  3. to lead

Etymology & Origin

领

pictophonetichead

Decomposition: ⿰令页 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 领

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
领导verb/nounlǐng dǎolead5
领先verblǐng xiānto lead5
领域nounlǐng yùdomain5
领带nounlǐng dàinecktie5
带领verbdài lǐngto guide6
本领nounběn lǐngskill5
白领nounbái lǐngwhite-collar6
率领verbshuài lǐngto lead6
领取verblǐng qǔto receive5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
领袖nounlǐng xiùleader
领养verblǐng yǎngto adopt (a child, pet etc)
占领verbzhàn lǐngto capture
首领nounshǒu lǐnghead
领地nounlǐng dìterritory
领导者nounlǐng dǎo zhěleader
领主nounlǐng zhǔfeudal lord
领导人nounlǐng dǎo rénleader
领事馆nounlǐng shì guǎnconsulate
领土nounlǐng tǔterritory
领队verblǐng duìto lead a group
领悟verblǐng wùto understand
领头verblǐng tóuto take the lead
领会verblǐng huìto understand
认领verbrèn lǐngto claim (as one's property)
101
Total compounds
60
As first character
33
As last character
7
As middle character

领 appears in 101 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 领 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

占zhàn
0.63955,792 co-occurrences
导dǎo
0.626158,507 co-occurrences
袖xiù
0.62534,784 co-occurrences
域yù
0.57666,154 co-occurrences
纲gāng
0.5264,952 co-occurrences
衔xián
0.5156,803 co-occurrences
率lǜ
0.50634,852 co-occurrences
土tǔ
0.50432,496 co-occurrences
带dài
0.50021,210 co-occurrences
馆guǎn
0.48817,678 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

独领风骚dúlǐngfēngsāoHSK 7+

to be outstanding and peerless (in a particular area)

phrase
共同纲领gòngtóng gānglǐngHSK 7+

common program; the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

noun
翘足引领qiáo zú yǐn lǐngHSK 7+

waiting on tiptoes and craning one's neck (idiom); to look forward eagerly; to long for

phrase
遥遥领先yáoyáolǐngxiānHSK 6+

to be a long way in front; to be far ahead; to lead by a wide margin

phrase
意见领袖yì jiàn lǐng xiùHSK 6+

opinion leader

phrase
提纲挈领tí gāng qiè lǐngHSK 7+

to concentrate on the main points (idiom); to bring out the essentials

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他带领团队完成了这个艰巨的项目,获得了表彰。

Tā dàilǐng tuánduì wánchéng le zhè gè jiānjù de xiàngmù, huòdé le biǎozhāng.

He led the team to complete this difficult project and received recognition.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

五特攻队跃领涨先锋 将是大盘上冲34,000点焦点

wǔ tè gōng duì yuè lǐng zhǎng xiān fēng jiāng shì dà pán shàng chōng 3 4 , 0 0 0 diǎn jiāo diǎn

The five special forces jumped to the vanguard and will be the focus of the market rising to 34,000 points

百度新闻Feb 2026

AI+玩具引领消费风潮,成都有店铺多次补货仍供不应..

A I wán jù yǐn lǐng xiāo fèi fēng cháo , chéng dōu yǒu diàn pù duō cì bǔ huò réng gōng bù yīng . .

AI+ toys lead the consumption trend, and Chengdu stores have replenished many times but are still in short supply:

百度新闻Feb 2026

...会|全天综合:中国速滑再迎突破 中井亚美领跑花..

. . . huì quán tiān zèng gě zhōng guó sù huá zài yíng tū pò zhōng jǐng yà měi lǐng pǎo huā . .

...All-Day Coverage: China's Speed Skating Achieves Another Breakthrough as Nakai Ami Leads in the 500m...

百度新闻Feb 2026

央企大拜年|智惠领航,“翼”马当先!

yāng qǐ dà bài nián zhì huì lǐng háng , yì mǎ dāng xiān !

State-Owned Enterprises New Year Greetings | Smart Leadership, Soaring Ahead!

百度新闻Feb 2026

伊最高领袖称伊朗武器事务“与美国无关”

yī zuì gāo lǐng xiù chèn yī lǎng wǔ qì shì wù yú měi guó mó guān

Iran's Supreme Leader Says Country's Weapons Affairs "Have Nothing to Do with the United States"

Tatoeba

失物招领处在哪儿?

Shīwùzhāolǐng chǔzài nǎr?

Where is the lost and found?

Tatoeba

您专攻于中医的什么领域?

Nín zhuāngōng yú Zhōngyī de shénme lǐngyù?

Which aspects of Chinese medicine do you specialise in?

Tatoeba

你熟悉这个领域吗?

Nǐ shúxī zhège lǐngyù ma?

Is that an area you are familiar with?

Tatoeba

很快,城市就被士兵占领了。

Hěn kuài, chéngshì jiù bèi shìbīng zhànlǐng le.

The city was soon occupied by the soldiers.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 页 (head) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced lǐng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 领 (lǐng) mean in Chinese?
领 (lǐng) primarily means "neck." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #329 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 领 and 冷?
领 (lǐng) and 冷 (lěng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 页 vs 冫 (same 令 component).
How many strokes does 领 have?
领 is written with 11 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 领?
The radical associated with 领 is 页 (page). This radical appears in many characters related to page.
What are the components of 领?
领 is composed of: 令 (phonetic), 页 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰令页 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 领?
Common words with 领 include: 领导 (lǐng dǎo, "lead"); 领先 (lǐng xiān, "to lead"); 领袖 (lǐng xiù, "leader"); 领域 (lǐng yù, "domain"); 领带 (lǐng dài, "necktie"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 领 (lǐng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lǐng: 零 (zero), 龄 (age), 铃 (bell), 岭 (mountain range). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 领 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 领 and the traditional form is 領.

Practice writing 领 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.