孪 (luán): twins

孪 (luán) is a Chinese character meaning “twins.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 亦 (structural) and 子 (structural). It ranks #2992 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 孪 giving birth to a second 亦 child 子. Its radical form 子 (child) appears in many related characters such as 子 (zǐ, son), 字 (zì, letter), 学 (xué, to learn).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 子 child9 strokesFrequency #2992亦 structural子 structural

Definitions

  1. twins

Etymology & Origin

孪

ideographicGiving birth to a second 亦 child 子

Decomposition: ⿱亦子 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:亦structural子structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
孪生luán shēng(adj.) twin
数字孪生shù zì luán shēngdigital twin
孪生兄弟luán shēng xiōng dìtwin brothers
孪生姐妹luán shēng jiě mèitwin sisters
4
Total compounds
75
As first character
0
As last character
25
As middle character

孪 appears in 4 compound words: 75 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 25 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 孪 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

晶jīng
0.532840 co-occurrences
兄xiōng
0.497948 co-occurrences
弟dì
0.4921,302 co-occurrences
姐jiě
0.478624 co-occurrences
妹mèi
0.465678 co-occurrences
生shēng
0.4313,186 co-occurrences
素sù
0.407444 co-occurrences
轴zhóu
0.37066 co-occurrences
滩tān
0.36442 co-occurrences
数shǔ
0.364492 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

孪生兄弟luánshēng xiōngdìHSK 7+

twin brothers

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

孪生兄弟感情深厚。

Luánshēng xiōngdì gǎnqíng shēnhòu.

The twin brothers have a deep bond.

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

“重出版本”与“孪生底本”孰优孰劣

chóng chū bǎn běn yǔ luán shēng de běn 孰 yōu 孰 liè

Character Family

子 Radical Family — Characters sharing the child radical

存cún孤gū孩hái季jì孔kǒng孙sūn学xué孕yùn子zǐ字zì

Related Characters

子zǐ字zì学xué孩hái存cún孙sūn季jì孤gū孔kǒng孕yùn

Homophones — Characters pronounced luán

卵luǎn乱luàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 孪 (luán) mean in Chinese?
孪 (luán) primarily means "twins." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2992 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 孪 have?
孪 is written with 9 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 孪?
The radical associated with 孪 is 子 (child). This radical appears in many characters related to child.
What are the components of 孪?
孪 is composed of: 亦 (structural), 子 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱亦子 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 孪?
Common words with 孪 include: 孪生 (luán shēng, "(adj.) twin"); 数字孪生 (shù zì luán shēng, "digital twin"); 孪生兄弟 (luán shēng xiōng dì, "twin brothers"); 孪生姐妹 (luán shēng jiě mèi, "twin sisters"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 孪 (luán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation luán: 卵 (egg), 乱 (in confusion or disorder). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 孪 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 孪 and the traditional form is 孿.

Practice writing 孪 with real-time feedback

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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.