玩 (wán): to play, to have fun, to trifle with
玩 (wán) is a Chinese character meaning “to play.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 王 (semantic) and 元 (phonetic). It ranks #1071 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 玩 jade. Its radical form 王 (jade) appears in many related characters such as 现 (xiàn, to appear), 班 (bān, team), 球 (qiú, ball used for playing games (variant of 球)).
Definitions
- to play
- to have fun
- to trifle with
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 玩 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
HSK Vocabulary with 玩
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 开玩笑verb | kāi wán xiào | to play a joke | 4 |
| 玩具noun | wán jù | plaything | 5 |
| 好玩儿adjective | hǎo wán r | erhua variant of 好玩 | 1 |
| 游玩verb | yóu wán | to amuse oneself | 4 |
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 玩笑noun | wán xiào | to joke |
| 玩意noun | wán yì | toy |
| 好玩adjective | hǎo wán | amusing |
| 玩偶noun | wán ǒu | toy figurine |
| 玩儿verb | wán r | to play |
| 玩弄verb | wán nòng | to play with |
| 玩耍verb | wán shuǎ | to play (as children do) |
| 玩牌 | wán pái | to play cards |
| 玩乐verb | wán lè | to play around |
| 玩艺 | wán yì | variant of 玩意 |
| 玩火verb | wán huǒ | to play with fire |
| 玩忽职守phrase | wán hū zhí shǒu | to neglect one's duty |
| 玩物noun | wán wù | toy |
| 玩世不恭phrase | wán shì bù gōng | to trifle without respect (idiom) |
| 古玩noun | gǔ wán | antique |
玩 appears in 86 compound words: 60 as the first character, 19 as the last, and 21 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 玩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (9)
to indulge in what one likes and lose one's sense of purpose; infatuation saps the will
Example Sentences
玩字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。
wán zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .
The way the character "玩" is written is quite unique and left a deep impression on me.
...基金成大赢家!港美股陷低迷见红 靠“呢个玩法”逆市保平安兼稳赚
. . . jī jīn chéng dà yíng jiā ! gǎng měi gǔ xiàn dī mí jiàn hóng kào ne gè wán fǎ nì shì bǎo píng ān jiān wěn zhuàn
... The fund became a big winner! Hong Kong and U.S. stocks are in a downturn and are in the red, relying on "this way of playing" to go against the market to ensure safety and make steady profits
...chi让人心疼 IKEA赚到广告 16元玩偶全球卖翻
. . . c h i ràng rén xīn téng I K E A zhuàn dào guǎng gào 1 6 yuán wán ǒu quán qiú mài fān
... Chi is distressing, IKEA earns advertising 16 yuan dolls are sold worldwide
公园“玩”出“花样”新年味 科技、运动、生态为游...
gōng yuán wán chū huā yàng xīn nián wèi kē jì , yùn dòng , shēng tài wéi yóu . . .
The park "plays" with "tricks" New Year's flavor technology, sports, ecology for tourism...
电脑玩家哭了?中企被寄望“便宜记忆体救世主” ...
diàn nǎo wán jiā kū le ? zhōng qǐ bèi jì wàng biàn yí jì yì tǐ jiù shì zhǔ . . .
Computer gamers crying? Chinese companies are expected to be the "savior of cheap memory"...
AI+玩具引领消费风潮,成都有店铺多次补货仍供不...
A I wán jù yǐn lǐng xiāo fèi fēng cháo , chéng dōu yǒu diàn pù duō cì bǔ huò réng gōng bù . . .
AI+ toys lead the consumption trend, and Chengdu stores have replenished many times but are still not available...
你是在跟我开玩笑吧？！
Nǐ shì zài gēn wǒ kāiwánxiào ba?!
Are you freaking kidding me?!
不谈了！我们去周庄玩怎么样？
Bù tán le! wǒmen qù Zhōuzhuāng wán zěnmeyàng?
No need to say anything more. How about we go to Zhouzhuang?
你去国外是玩儿还是出差？
Nǐ qùguówài shì wánr háishi chūchāi?
Did you go abroad for pleasure or on business?
你想好放假去哪里玩了没有？
Nǐ xiǎng hǎo fàngjià qù nǎlǐ wán le méiyǒu?
Have you made up your mind where to go for the holidays?
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 王 (jade) component
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 玩 (wán) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 玩 and 远?
How many strokes does 玩 have?
What is the radical of 玩?
What are the components of 玩?
What are common words containing 玩?
What characters sound the same as 玩 (wán)?
Is 玩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 玩 with real-time feedback
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