攀 (pān): to climb (by pulling oneself up), to implicate, to claim connections of higher status

攀 (pān) is a Chinese character meaning “to climb (by pulling oneself up).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 樊 (phonetic) and 手 (semantic). It ranks #2360 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 攀 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 climb (by pulling oneself up)
  2. to implicate
  3. to claim connections of higher status

Etymology & Origin

攀

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿱樊手 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
攀登verbpān dēngto climb
攀升verbpān shēngto clamber up
高攀verbgāo pānsocial climbing
高不可攀gāo bù kě pāntoo high to reach (idiom)
攀越verbpān yuèto climb over
攀附verbpān fùto climb (of climbing plants)
攀比verbpān bǐto make invidious comparisons
攀谈verbpān tánto chat
攀援verbpān yuánto climb up (a rope etc)
攀亲verbpān qīnto seek to profit by family ties
攀缘verbpān yuánto climb up (a rope etc)
高攀不上gāo pān bù shàngto be unworthy to associate with (sb of higher social status)
不敢高攀bù gǎn gāo pānlit. not dare to pull oneself up high (humble term)
攀亲道故pān qīn dào gù(idiom) to use claims to kinship or friendship to climb socially
攀高结贵pān gāo jié guìlit. to cling to the high, connect to the rich (idiom)
32
Total compounds
78
As first character
9
As last character
13
As middle character

攀 appears in 32 compound words: 78 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 13 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 攀 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

爬pá
0.5642,965 co-occurrences
登dēng
0.5618,224 co-occurrences
枝zhī
0.5552,024 co-occurrences
岩yán
0.5203,039 co-occurrences
升shēng
0.4363,076 co-occurrences
茎jīng
0.435150 co-occurrences
辕yuán
0.41650 co-occurrences
花huā
0.4081,940 co-occurrences
陡dǒu
0.39747 co-occurrences
峭qiào
0.39074 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

高不可攀gāo bù kě pānHSK 7+

too high to reach (idiom); eminent and unapproachable

phrase
高攀不上gāo pān bù shàngHSK 7+

to be unworthy to associate with (sb of higher social status)

phrase
攀龙附凤pānlóngfùfèngHSK 7+

to ingratiate oneself with powerful or influential people so as to acquire benefits

phrase
夤缘攀附yín yuán pān fùHSK 7+

to cling to the rich and powerful (idiom); to advance one's career by currying favor; social climbing

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing 攀.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他攀起袖子,开始认真地打扫房间。

tā pān qǐ xiù zǐ , kāi shǐ rèn zhēn dì dǎ sǎo fáng jiān .

He rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning the room thoroughly.

DigitimesFeb 2026

(独家)NAND报价攀高不停 群联率先发函客户改交预付款

( dú jiā ) N A N D bào jià pān gāo bù tíng qún lián lǜ xiān fā hán kè hù gǎi jiāo yù fù kuǎn

(Exclusive) NAND quotations continue to rise, and Phison took the lead in sending a letter to customers to pay in advance

Khmer TimesFeb 2026

2025年1月柬埔寨服装和鞋类出口额攀升至14亿美元

2 0 2 5 nián 1 yuè jiǎn 埔 zhài fú zhuāng hé xié lèi chū kǒu é pān shēng zhì 1 4 yì měi yuán

Cambodia's clothing and footwear exports climbed to $1.4 billion in January 2025

Khmer TimesFeb 2026

2025年1月柬埔寨燃料进口额小幅攀升至2.2亿美元

2 0 2 5 nián 1 yuè jiǎn 埔 zhài rán liào jìn kǒu é xiǎo fú pān shēng zhì 2 . 2 yì měi yuán

Cambodia's fuel imports climbed slightly to $220 million in January 2025

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

【人生急转弯】林比比鸟/教官退伍后,他靠攀树翻转人生

rén shēng jí zhuǎn wān lín bǐ bǐ niǎo jiào guān tuì wǔ hòu , tā kào pān shù fān zhuǎn rén shēng

【A sharp turn in life】After Lin Bibi Bird/Instructor was discharged from the army, he turned his life around by climbing trees

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

货币基金规模攀至1.2兆元

huò bì jī jīn guī mó pān zhì 1 . 2 zhào yuán

The scale of the monetary fund climbed to 1.2 trillion yuan

Tatoeba

西洋常春藤是攀缘藤本植物。

Xīyáng chángchūnténg shì pān yuán téngběnzhíwù.

English ivy is a climbing vine.

Tatoeba

事实上,价格每个星期都在攀升。

Shìshíshàng, jiàgé měi gè xīngqī dōu zài pānshēng.

As it is, prices are going up every week.

Tatoeba

攀登富士山后,我得到了一首诗的灵感。

Pāndēng Fùshì Shān hòu, wǒ dédào le yī shǒu shī de línggǎn.

After climbing Mt Fuji I got the inspiration for a poem.

Tatoeba

价格一直在稳定地攀升。

Jiàgé yīzhí zài wěndìng de pānshēng.

Prices have been climbing steadily.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 手 (hand) component

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced pān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 攀 (pān) mean in Chinese?
攀 (pān) primarily means "to climb (by pulling oneself up)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2360 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 攀 have?
攀 is written with 19 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 攀?
The radical associated with 攀 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 攀?
攀 is composed of: 樊 (phonetic), 手 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱樊手 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 攀?
Common words with 攀 include: 攀登 (pān dēng, "to climb"); 攀升 (pān shēng, "to clamber up"); 高攀 (gāo pān, "social climbing"); 高不可攀 (gāo bù kě pān, "too high to reach (idiom)"); 攀越 (pān yuè, "to climb over"). There are over 32 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 攀 (pān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pān: 判 ((bound form) to differentiate), 盘 (tray), 叛 (to betray), 盼 (to hope for), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 攀 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 攀 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 攀 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.