(qiǎng): to fight over, to rush, to scramble, to grab, to rob, to snatch

(qiǎng) is a Chinese character meaning “to fight over.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1404 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to fight over
  2. to rush
  3. to scramble
  4. to grab
  5. to rob
  6. to snatch

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌仓 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbqiǎng jiùto rescue5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
qiǎng jiéto rob
qiǎng zǒuto snatch (esp related to a robbery)
qiǎng xiānto rush (to do sth urgent)
qiǎng shǒu(of goods) popular
qiǎng yǎneye-catching
qiǎng duóto plunder
qiǎng duàn(basketball) to steal (the ball)
qiǎng gòuto buy frenetically
qiǎng zhànto seize (the strategic high ground)
qiǎng lüèto loot
qiǎng xiūto repair in a rush
qiǎng dáto compete to be the first to answer a question (as on a quiz show)
zhēng qiǎngto fight over
qiǎng jìng tóuto scoop the best camera shots
qiǎng shǒu huòa best-seller
40
Total compounds
83
As first character
10
As last character
8
As middle character

appears in 40 compound words: 83 as the first character, 10 as the last, and 8 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

jié
0.69518,614 co-occurrences
jiù
0.56115,646 co-occurrences
duó
0.5325,154 co-occurrences
lüè
0.5282,940 co-occurrences
0.5181,164 co-occurrences
hōng
0.492372 co-occurrences
xiǎn
0.4863,618 co-occurrences
shāo
0.4411,230 co-occurrences
duàn
0.4392,706 co-occurrences
zǒu
0.4244,422 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

hūtiānqiāngdìHSK 5+

to cry bitterly and loudly in excessive grief

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

起袖子,开始认真地打扫房间。

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

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

Hk01.comFeb 2026

巴拿马硬长和港口 中国须严厉回击遏制更严重“破窗...

bā ná mǎ yìng qiǎng cháng hé gǎng kǒu zhōng guó xū yán lì huí jī è zhì gēng yán chóng pò chuāng . . .

Panama has to fight back severely to contain more serious "broken windows...

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

娱乐先看/始源8字贴文挺尹锡悦掀论战、逸祥探...

yú lè qiǎng xiān kàn shǐ yuán 8 zì tiē wén tǐng 尹 xī yuè xiān lùn zhàn , yì xiáng tàn . . .

Entertainment sneak peek/Siyuan 8-word post supports Yoon Suk-yue's debate, Yixiang probes...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

FT台湾永续高息

F T tái wān yǒng xù gāo xī qiǎng jìng

FT Taiwan perpetual high interest steals the spotlight

StheadlineFeb 2026

...生命|秀茂坪顺利邨45岁妇堕楼 昏迷送院救不治

. . . shēng mìng xiù mào píng shùn lì 邨 4 5 suì fù duò lóu hūn mí sòng yuàn qiǎng jiù bù zhì

... A 45-year-old woman fell from a building in Shunli Estate in Sau Mau Ping and was sent to the hospital for rescue

StheadlineFeb 2026

珍惜生命|秀茂坪顺利邨45岁妇堕楼 送院救不治

zhēn xī shēng mìng xiù mào píng shùn lì 邨 4 5 suì fù duò lóu sòng yuàn qiǎng jiù bù zhì

Cherish Life|A 45-year-old woman fell from a building and was sent to the hospital for rescue

Tatoeba

税收就是合法的劫。

Shuìshōu jiùshì héfǎ de qiǎngjié.

Taxes are just legal robbery.

Tatoeba

你们怎么可以别人的东西?

Nǐmen zěnme kěyǐ qiǎng biéren de dōngxi?

How can you guys steal someone else's stuff?

Tatoeba

把手举起来!这是劫。

Bǎ shǒu jǔqǐ lái! Zhè shì qiǎngjié.

Hands up! This is a robbery.

Tatoeba

他把我妹妹的玩具都走了。

Tā bǎ wǒ mèimei de wánjù dōu qiǎngzǒu le.

He deprived my little sister of all her toys.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced qiǎng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 抢 (qiǎng) mean in Chinese?
抢 (qiǎng) primarily means "to fight over." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1404 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 抢 and 创?
抢 (qiǎng) and 创 (chuàng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 刂 (same 仓 component).
How many strokes does 抢 have?
抢 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 抢?
The radical associated with 抢 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 抢?
抢 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 仓 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌仓 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 抢?
Common words with 抢 include: 抢劫 (qiǎng jié, "to rob"); 抢走 (qiǎng zǒu, "to snatch (esp related to a robbery)"); 抢救 (qiǎng jiù, "to rescue"); 抢先 (qiǎng xiān, "to rush (to do sth urgent)"); 抢手 (qiǎng shǒu, "(of goods) popular"). There are over 40 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 抢 (qiǎng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation qiǎng: 呛 (to irritate the nose), 枪 (gun), 腔 ((bound form) cavity), 强 (stubborn), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 抢 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 抢 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.