(wàn): ten thousand, a great number

(wàn) is a Chinese character meaning “ten thousand.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #322 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ten thousand
  2. a great number

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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
adverbqiān wànten million4
noun/conjunctionwàn yījust in case5
chéng qiān shàng wànlit. by the thousands and tens of thousands (idiom)6
nounwàn wùall things6
qiān jiā wàn hùevery family (idiom)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bǎi wànmillion
wàn suìLong live (the king, the revolution etc)!
shí wànhundred thousand
wàn néngomnipotent
wàn fēnvery much
亿yì wànmillions and millions
wàn shìall things
shù bǎi wànseveral million
shàng wànover ten thousand
wàn shì tōngjack-of-all-trades
wàn èeverything that is evil
wàn wànhundred million
wàn qiānmyriad
亿wàn yìtrillion
wàn bǎo lùMarlboro (cigarette)
100
Total compounds
85
As first character
11
As last character
4
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 85 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 4 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.

dūn
0.58943,590 co-occurrences
bàng
0.56310,902 co-occurrences
yuán
0.551242,486 co-occurrences
háo
0.53751,906 co-occurrences
0.53616,008 co-occurrences
dūn
0.53050,052 co-occurrences
0.51957,612 co-occurrences
qǐng
0.4837,974 co-occurrences
bǎi
0.48182,043 co-occurrences
qiān
0.47983,198 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (47)

bǎiwàn fùwēngHSK 7+

millionaire

noun
bāoluó-wànxiàngHSK 7+

all-inclusive; all-embracing

phrase
chéngqiānchéngwànHSK 3+

by the thousands and tens of thousands; untold numbers; innumerable; thousands upon thousands

phrase
chéngqiānlěiwànHSK 3+

by the thousands and tens of thousands; untold numbers; innumerable; thousands upon thousands

phrase
chéngqiānshàngwànHSK 3+

by the thousands and tens of thousands; untold numbers; innumerable; thousands upon thousands

phrase
guàyīlòuwànHSK 5+

to be inexhaustive; to leave many important items out

phrase
guāngmángwànzhàngHSK 7+

gloriously radiant; resplendent

phrase
huá rùn wàn jiāHSK 5+

CR Vanguard or China Resources Vanguard Shop, a supermarket chain in Hong Kong and mainland China

phrase
péngchéngwànlǐHSK 7+

to have brilliant prospects; to have a bright future

phrase
qiānbiànwànhuàHSK 3+

an innumerable amount of changes; countless changes

phrase
qiānchā-wànbiéHSK 3+

varying greatly; having a diverse range; multifarious

phrase
qiān dīng wàn zhǔHSK 7+

repeatedly urging; imploring over and over again

phrase

Showing 12 of 47 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

事开头难,但只要坚持,就一定能成功。

Wàn shì kāitóu nán, dàn zhǐyào jiānchí, jiù yīdìng néng chénggōng.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, but as long as you persist, you will surely succeed.

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国12月营建许可总数录得144.8户,为202..

měi guó yuè yíng jiàn xǔ kě zǒng shǔ lù dé . mò hù , wéi . .

U.S. building permits totaled 1.448 million in December, up from 202...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...男生春节上门喂猫 前后20多天 爆赚16 ..

. . . nán shēng chūn jié shǎng mén wéi māo qián hòu duō tiān bào zhuàn mò . .

... Boys feed cats at home in the Spring Festival, before and after more than 20 days, earning 160,000 ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...春风三地书 2026福建省春节联欢晚会绘里风..

. . . chūn fēng sān dì shū fú jiàn shěng chūn jié lián huān wǎn huì huì mò lǐ fēng . .

... Spring Breeze Three Books 2026 Fujian Provincial Spring Festival Gala Paints Miles of Wind...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...节假期首日北京市属公园接待游客20.95人次,..

. . . jié jiǎ qī shǒu rì běi jīng shì shǔ gōng yuán jiē dāi yóu kè . mò rén cì , . .

... On the first day of the holiday, Beijing's parks received 209,500 visitors, ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

守护家灯火,90后山东小伙的萧山变电站除夕夜

shǒu hù mò jiā dēng huǒ , hòu shān dōng xiǎo huǒ de xiāo shān biàn diàn zhàn chú xī yè

Guarding the lights, 90 years after the Shandong boy's Xiaoshan substation New Year's Eve

Tatoeba

你有100美元的话,你会做什么?

Nǐ yǒu yī bǎi wàn Měiyuán de huà, nǐ huì zuò shénme?

What would you do if you had a million dollars?

Tatoeba

一他迟到的话怎么辨?

Wànyī tā chídào dehuà zěnme biàn?

What if he should happen to be late?

Tatoeba

如果你有一百円,你会用它来做什么?

Rúguǒ nǐ yǒu yī bǎi wàn yuán, nǐ huì yòng tā lái zuò shénme?

Supposing you had one million yen, what would you do with it?

Tatoeba

你曾经一个月赚过 3 美元以上吗?

Nǐ céngjīng yī gè yuè zhuàn guo 3 wàn Měiyuán yǐshàng ma?

Have you ever made more than $30,000 in one month?

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 万 (wàn) mean in Chinese?
万 (wàn) primarily means "ten thousand." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #322 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 万 have?
万 is written with 3 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 万?
The radical associated with 万 is 一 (one). This radical appears in many characters related to one.
What are the components of 万?
万 is composed of: 一 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 万?
Common words with 万 include: 千万 (qiān wàn, "ten million"); 万一 (wàn yī, "just in case"); 百万 (bǎi wàn, "million"); 万岁 (wàn suì, "Long live (the king, the revolution etc)!"); 成千上万 (chéng qiān shàng wàn, "lit. by the thousands and tens of thousands (idiom)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 万 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 万 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.