烷 (wán): alkane

烷 (wán) is a Chinese character meaning “alkane.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 火 (semantic) and 完 (phonetic). It ranks #3109 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 烷 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 烟 (yān, smoke), 烧 (shāo, to burn, to cook).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. alkane

Etymology & Origin

烷

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火完 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
甲烷nounjiǎ wánmethane CH4
丙烷nounbǐng wánpropane
丁烷noundīng wánbutane
烷烃nounwán tīngalkane
烷基nounwán jīalkyl
十六烷值shí liù wán zhícetane number (quality of light diesel fuel, measured by its ignition delay)
三氯甲烷nounsān lǜ jiǎ wánchloroform (trichloromethane CHCl3)
二氯甲烷nounèr lǜ jiǎ wándichloromethane
异丁烷nounyì dīng wánisobutane
辛烷值nounxīn wán zhíoctane rating
烷氧基wán yǎng jīalkoxy (chemistry)
烷基苯wán jī běnalkyl benzene
环烷烃nounhuán wán tīngcycloalkane
烷基苯磺酸钠wán jī běn huáng suān nàsodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (used as a bubbling agent in detergents)
环氧乙烷nounhuán yǎng yǐ wánethylene oxide
22
Total compounds
23
As first character
59
As last character
18
As middle character

烷 appears in 22 compound words: 23 as the first character, 59 as the last, and 18 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 烷 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

氧yǎng
0.74810 co-occurrences
甲jiǎ
0.64212 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

二氯甲烷èrlǜjiǎwán

dichloromethane

noun
三氯甲烷sānlǜjiǎwán

trichloromethane; chloroform

noun
十六烷值shí liù wán zhí

cetane number (quality of light diesel fuel, measured by its ignition delay)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

蜡烛的烷苗在微风中轻轻摇曳。

là zhú de wán miáo zài wēi fēng zhōng qīng qīng yáo 曳 .

The candle's flame flickered gently in the breeze.

IT之家Jul 2026

后续团队将结合试验数据与积累的工程经验,进一步推进液氧甲烷发动机的研制工作。

hòu xù tuán duì jiāng jié gě shì yàn shǔ jù yǔ jī lěi de gōng chéng jīng yàn , jìn yī bù tuī jìn yè yǎng jiǎ wán fā dòng jī de yán zhì gōng zuò .

Moving forward, the team will combine test data with its accumulated engineering experience to further advance the development of the liquid oxygen/methane engine.

IT之家Jul 2026

该公司全复用火箭采用了公司自研的 200 吨级全流量液氧甲烷发动机 。

gāi gōng sī quán fù yòng huǒ jiàn cǎi yòng le gōng sī zì yán de 2 0 0 dūn jí quán liú liàng yè yǎng jiǎ wán fā dòng jī .

The company's fully reusable rocket is powered by a 200-metric-ton-class full-flow liquid oxygen/methane engine developed in-house.

IT之家Jul 2026

这两个星球的大气层确实很相似,都富含甲烷和氮气。

zhè liǎng gè xīng qiú de dà qì céng què shí hěn xiāng sì , dōu fù hán jiǎ wán hé 氮 qì .

The atmospheres of these two planets are indeed very similar; both are rich in methane and nitrogen.

IT之家Jun 2026

官方表示,跃迁一号是大航跃迁自主研发的液氧甲烷可重复使用运载火箭。

guān fāng biǎo shì , yuè qiān yī hào shì dà háng yuè qiān zì zhǔ yán fā de yè yǎng jiǎ wán kě chóng fù shǐ yòng yùn zài huǒ jiàn .

Officials stated that "Yueqian-1" is a liquid oxygen/methane reusable launch vehicle independently developed by Dahang Yueqian.

IT之家Jun 2026

验证一:甲烷箱蒙皮密封性能与极限承载 采用铺丝机工艺,严格按铺层设计生产试验样件。

yàn zhèng yī : jiǎ wán xiāng méng pí mì fēng xìng néng yǔ jí xiàn chéng zài cǎi yòng pù sī jī gōng yì , yán gé àn pù céng shè jì shēng chǎn shì yàn yàng jiàn .

Test 1: Sealing Performance and Ultimate Load Capacity of the Methane Tank Skin. Test specimens were produced strictly in accordance with the layup design using a filament winding machine.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 火 (fire) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 烷 (wán) mean in Chinese?
烷 (wán) primarily means "alkane." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3109 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 烷 and 院?
烷 (wán) and 院 (yuàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 阝 (same 完 component).
How many strokes does 烷 have?
烷 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 烷?
The radical associated with 烷 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 烷?
烷 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 完 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火完 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 烷?
Common words with 烷 include: 甲烷 (jiǎ wán, "methane CH4"); 丙烷 (bǐng wán, "propane"); 丁烷 (dīng wán, "butane"); 烷烃 (wán tīng, "alkane"); 烷基 (wán jī, "alkyl"). There are over 22 compound words containing this character.
Is 烷 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 烷 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 烷 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.