挽 (wǎn): to pull, to draw (a cart or a bow), to roll up

挽 (wǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “to pull.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 免 (phonetic). It ranks #2170 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 挽 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).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to pull
  2. to draw (a cart or a bow)
  3. to roll up

Etymology & Origin

挽

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌免 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
挽救verbwǎn jiùto save
挽回verbwǎn huíto retrieve
挽留verbwǎn liúto urge to stay
力挽狂澜phraselì wǎn kuáng lánto pull strongly against a crazy tide (idiom)
无可挽回wú kě wǎn huíirrevocable
挽具nounwǎn jùharness
挽歌nounwǎn gēa dirge
不可挽回bù kě wǎn huíirreversible
挽力wǎn lìpulling power (of draft animals)
挽近wǎn jìnold variant of 晚近
挽联nounwǎn liánpair of parallel verses inscribed on streamers, used as funeral decoration
推挽tuī wǎnto push and pull
挽词wǎn cían elegy
挽额wǎn éelegiac tablet
挽尊wǎn zūn(neologism) (slang) to salvage a bit of dignity (abbr. for 挽回尊嚴|挽回尊严)
18
Total compounds
78
As first character
6
As last character
17
As middle character

挽 appears in 18 compound words: 78 as the first character, 6 as the last, and 17 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 挽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

救jiù
0.6015,638 co-occurrences
澜lán
0.565183 co-occurrences
颓tuí
0.47556 co-occurrences
留liú
0.4732,288 co-occurrences
狂kuáng
0.445505 co-occurrences
回huí
0.4384,586 co-occurrences
劣liè
0.368104 co-occurrences
辕yuán
0.36216 co-occurrences
弓gōng
0.35396 co-occurrences
凄qī
0.34410 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

力挽狂澜lìwǎnkuánglánHSK 7+

to try hard to save a desperate crisis; to do one's utmost to save a desperate situation

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他挽了一个电话,约朋友晚上一起吃饭。

tā wǎn le yī gě diàn huà , yāo péng yǒu wǎn shǎng yī qǐ chī fàn .

He made a phone call to invite his friends out for dinner that evening.

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

挽救出生率 中国2025起育儿补贴524亿

wǎn jiù chū shēng lǜ zhōng guó 2 0 2 5 qǐ yù ér bǔ tiē 5 2 4 yì

To Boost Birth Rates, China to Provide 52.4 Billion Yuan in Child-Rearing Subsidies Starting in 2025

ZaobaoMar 2026

柬埔寨打击网诈挽回中国游客信心

jiǎn bù zhài dǎ jī wǎng zhà wǎn huí zhōng guó yóu kè xìn xīn

Cambodia Cracks Down on Online Fraud to Restore Chinese Tourists' Confidence

東方日報Mar 2026

东方日报C1:赵薇潜入戏院吸客 难挽票房颓势

dōng fāng rì bào C 1 : zhào 薇 qián rù xì yuàn xī kè nán wǎn piào fáng tuí shì

Oriental Daily C1: Zhao Wei Sneaks Into Theaters to Attract Audiences, but Can't Reverse Box Office Slump

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

挽袖捐血纾解血荒!台湾中油公司石化事业部举...

wǎn xiù juān xiě 纾 jiě xiě huāng ! tái wān zhōng yóu gōng sī shí huà shì yè bù jǔ . . .

Roll up your sleeves and donate blood to help ease the blood shortage! CPC Corporation, Taiwan's Petrochemical Division is organizing...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...能拿回人生主控权...水瓶果断离开、他力挽狂澜

. . . néng ná huí rén shēng zhǔ kòng quán . . . shuǐ píng guǒ duàn lí kāi , tā lì wǎn kuáng lán

... Can regain control of life... Aquarius decisively left, and he turned the tide

Tatoeba

我看见他们胳膊挽着胳膊地走路。

Wǒ kànjiàn tāmen gēbo wǎn zhe gēbo de zǒulù.

I saw them walking arm in arm.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced wǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 挽 (wǎn) mean in Chinese?
挽 (wǎn) primarily means "to pull." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2170 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 挽 and 下?
挽 (wǎn) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 挽 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 挽 have?
挽 is written with 10 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 挽?
The radical associated with 挽 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 挽?
挽 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 免 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌免 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 挽?
Common words with 挽 include: 挽救 (wǎn jiù, "to save"); 挽回 (wǎn huí, "to retrieve"); 挽留 (wǎn liú, "to urge to stay"); 力挽狂澜 (lì wǎn kuáng lán, "to pull strongly against a crazy tide (idiom)"); 无可挽回 (wú kě wǎn huí, "irrevocable"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 挽 (wǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wǎn: 完 (to finish), 晚 (late, evening), 玩 (to play), 湾 (bay), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 挽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 挽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 挽 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.