万 (wàn): ten thousand, a great number

万 (wàn) is a Chinese character meaning “ten thousand.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 一 (structural). It ranks #322 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ten thousand
  2. a great number

Stroke Order

1
2
3

Practice writing 万 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 万

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
千万adverbqiān wànten million4
万一noun/conjunctionwàn yījust in case5
成千上万phrasechéng qiān shàng wàn(lit.) by the thousands and tens of thousands (idiom)6
万物nounwàn wùall things6
千家万户phraseqiān jiā wàn hùevery family (idiom)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
百万nounbǎi wànmillion
万岁verbwàn suìLong live (the king, the revolution etc)!
以防万一yǐ fáng wàn yīto guard against the unexpected (idiom)
十万nounshí wànhundred thousand
万能nounwàn néngomnipotent
万分adverbwàn fēnvery much
亿万nounyì wànmillions and millions
万事nounwàn shìall things
数百万shù bǎi wànseveral million
千真万确phraseqiān zhēn wàn quèabsolutely true (idiom)
百万富翁nounbǎi wàn fù wēngmillionaire
万无一失wàn wú yī shīsurefire
上万shàng wànover ten thousand
万事通nounwàn shì tōngjack-of-all-trades
万恶adjectivewàn è(rhetorical) utterly evil
105
Total compounds
82
As first character
11
As last character
7
As middle character

万 appears in 105 compound words: 82 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 7 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 万 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

镑bàng
0.5553,634 co-occurrences
豪háo
0.52917,302 co-occurrences
亩mǔ
0.5285,336 co-occurrences
敦dūn
0.52216,684 co-occurrences
余yú
0.51119,204 co-occurrences
元yuán
0.49881,296 co-occurrences
吨dūn
0.49814,562 co-occurrences
蒋jiǎng
0.47686 co-occurrences
顷qǐng
0.4762,658 co-occurrences
历lì
0.45320,696 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (60)

百万富翁bǎiwàn fùwēngHSK 7+

millionaire

noun
包罗万象bāoluó-wànxiàngHSK 7+

all-inclusive; all-embracing

phrase
成千成万chéngqiānchéngwànHSK 3+

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

phrase
成千累万chéngqiānlěiwànHSK 3+

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

phrase
成千上万chéngqiānshàngwànHSK 3+

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

phrase
挂一漏万guàyīlòuwànHSK 5+

to be inexhaustive; to leave many important items out

phrase
光芒万丈guāngmángwànzhàngHSK 7+

gloriously radiant; resplendent

phrase
华润万家huá rùn wàn jiāHSK 5+

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

phrase
排除万难pái chú wàn nánHSK 4+

to overcome all obstacles; to overcome countless difficulties

phrase
鹏程万里péngchéngwànlǐHSK 7+

to have brilliant prospects; to have a bright future

phrase
千变万化qiānbiànwànhuàHSK 3+

an innumerable amount of changes; countless changes

phrase
千差万别qiānchā-wànbiéHSK 3+

varying greatly; having a diverse range; multifarious

phrase

Showing 12 of 60 idioms containing 万.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

万事开头难,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144.8万户,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16万 ..

. . . 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万里风..

. . . 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20.95万人次,..

. . . 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

守护万家灯火,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100万美元的话,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

万一他迟到的话怎么辨?

Wànyī tā chídào dehuà zěnme biàn?

What if he should happen to be late?

Tatoeba

如果你有一百万円,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 万美元以上吗?

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)!"); 以防万一 (yǐ fáng wàn yī, "to guard against the unexpected (idiom)"). There are over 105 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 万 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.