攘 (rǎng): (literary) to push up one's sleeves, (literary) to reject, to resist, (literary) to seize, to steal

攘 (rǎng) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) to push up one's sleeves.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 襄 (phonetic). It ranks #2906 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 攘 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).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 扌 hand20 strokesFrequency #2906扌 semantic襄 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (literary) to push up one's sleeves
  2. (literary) to reject
  3. to resist
  4. (literary) to seize
  5. to steal

Etymology & Origin

攘

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌襄 (layout: left-right)

Components:扌semantic襄phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
熙熙攘攘xī xī rǎng rǎng(idiom) bustling with activity
熙攘xī rǎngrestless
攘外安内rǎng wài ān nèito resist foreign aggression and pacify the interior of the country (idiom)
熙来攘往xī lái rǎng wǎnga place buzzing with activity (idiom)
攘外rǎng wàito resist foreign aggression
攘场rǎng chángto spread harvested grain over an area
兵戈扰攘bīng gē rǎo rǎngarms and confusion (idiom)
攘除rǎng chúto get rid of
攘善rǎng shànto claim credit due to others
攘夺rǎng duóto seize
闹闹攘攘nào nào rǎng rǎngto create an uproar
扰攘rǎo rǎngbustling
攘羊rǎng yángto take home sb else's stray sheep
乱咕攘luàn gū rangto disturb (dialect)
攘灾rǎng zāito ward off calamities
27
Total compounds
63
As first character
26
As last character
11
As middle character

攘 appears in 27 compound words: 63 as the first character, 26 as the last, and 11 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 攘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

夷yí
0.6493,150 co-occurrences
熙xī
0.5391,752 co-occurrences
尊zūn
0.4961,236 co-occurrences
臂bì
0.459336 co-occurrences
扰rǎo
0.451240 co-occurrences
派pài
0.3951,038 co-occurrences
志zhì
0.358612 co-occurrences
夺duó
0.355144 co-occurrences
窃qiè
0.34230 co-occurrences
欲yù
0.340120 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

兵戈扰攘bīng gē rǎo rǎngHSK 7+

arms and confusion (idiom); turmoil of war

phrase
攘外安内rángwài'ānnèiHSK 7+

to repel foreign aggression while pacifying the interior

phrase
熙来攘往xīláirǎngwǎngHSK 7+

bustling with activity

phrase
熙熙攘攘xīxīrǎngrǎngHSK 7+

bustling with activity; hustling and bustling

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈攘着孩子的手，慢慢地过马路。

mā mā rǎng zhe hái zǐ de shǒu , màn màn dì guò mǎ lù .

Mom held her child's hand as they slowly crossed the street.

東方日報Mar 2026

世界视线:特朗普押后空袭 谋良策安内攘外

shì jiè shì xiàn : tè lǎng pǔ yā hòu kōng xí móu liáng cè ān nèi rǎng wài

World View: Trump Postpones Airstrikes to Devise Strategies for Domestic Stability and Foreign Policy

東方日報Mar 2026

...日报世界视线】特朗普押后空袭 谋良策安内攘外

. . . rì bào shì jiè shì xiàn tè lǎng pǔ yā hòu kōng xí móu liáng cè ān nèi rǎng wài

...Daily World Outlook】Trump Postpones Airstrikes to Devise Strategies for Domestic Stability and Foreign Policy

Am730Feb 2026

史上最长国情咨文演说 美国关税问题仍扰攘市场

shǐ shàng zuì cháng guó qíng zī wén yǎn shuō měi guó guān shuì wèn tí réng rǎo rǎng shì chǎng

The longest State of the Union address in history U.S. tariffs continue to disturb the market

Character Family

扌 Radical Family — Characters sharing the hand radical

把bǎ按àn摆bǎi拔bá搬bān扮bàn挨āi扳bān扒bā拌bàn

Related Characters

手shǒu打dǎ找zhǎo拿ná才cái护hù报bào拉lā挺tǐng换huàn

Homophones — Characters pronounced rǎng

嚷rǎng壤rǎng让ràng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 攘 (rǎng) mean in Chinese?
攘 (rǎng) primarily means "(literary) to push up one's sleeves." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2906 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 攘 and 下?
攘 (rǎng) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 攘 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 攘 have?
攘 is written with 20 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 攘?
The radical associated with 攘 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 攘?
攘 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 襄 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌襄 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 攘?
Common words with 攘 include: 熙熙攘攘 (xī xī rǎng rǎng, "(idiom) bustling with activity"); 熙攘 (xī rǎng, "restless"); 攘外安内 (rǎng wài ān nèi, "to resist foreign aggression and pacify the interior of the country (idiom)"); 熙来攘往 (xī lái rǎng wǎng, "a place buzzing with activity (idiom)"); 攘外 (rǎng wài, "to resist foreign aggression"). There are over 27 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 攘 (rǎng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation rǎng: 嚷 (to shout), 壤 ((bound form) soil), 让 (to let, to allow). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 攘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 攘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 攘 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.