(wáng): king or monarch, best or strongest of its type, grand

(wáng) is a Chinese character meaning “king or monarch.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #299 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a man 十 bridging heaven and earth (both 一). Its radical form (jade) appears in many related characters such as (wán, to play), (xiàn, to appear), (bān, team).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. king or monarch
  2. best or strongest of its type
  3. grand

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA man 十 bridging heaven and earth (both 一)

Decomposition: ⿱一土 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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
nounwáng zǐprince6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
guó wángking
nǚ wángqueen
wáng basoftshell turtle
wáng guókingdom
wáng hòuqueen
quán wángboxing champion
wáng pái(card games) trump card
wáng guāncrown
dà wángking
wáng wèititle of king
hǎi wáng xīngNeptune (planet)
wáng cháodynasty
bà wánghegemon
wáng fēiprincess (in Europe)
wáng shìroyal family
100
Total compounds
53
As first character
36
As last character
11
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 53 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 11 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.

0.50954,006 co-occurrences
cháo
0.507201,054 co-occurrences
mǎng
0.48412,186 co-occurrences
gōng
0.46629,418 co-occurrences
0.44176,908 co-occurrences
chǔ
0.43536,444 co-occurrences
qīn
0.43363,444 co-occurrences
qín
0.43136,678 co-occurrences
guó
0.430383,796 co-occurrences
fēng
0.42580,880 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

hùn shì mó wángHSK 7+

devil incarnate (idiom); fiend in human form

phrase
Kǒngquè WángcháoHSK 7+

Maurya Empire of India

Lièwángjì ShàngHSK 6+

1 Kings

Lièwángjì XiàHSK 6+

2 Kings

Wángmǔ NiángniangHSK 6+

Queen Mother of the West

Zhāng-Wáng-Lǐ-ZhàoHSK 7+

Zhang, Wang, Li and Zhao (the four most common surnames); common people; people in general

phrase
chéngwángbàikòuHSK 6+

synonym of 成者為王,敗者為寇 /成者为王,败者为寇 (chéng zhě wéi wáng, bài zhě wéi kòu)

proverb

Showing 7 of 10 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè wáng zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "王" (wáng) helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

WorldjournalFeb 2026

威科夫接受专访透露 奉川普指示会晤伊朗前

wēi kē fū jiē shòu zhuān fǎng tòu lù fèng chuān pǔ zhǐ shì huì wù yī lǎng qián wáng chǔ

Wyckoff revealed in an exclusive interview that he was instructed by Trump to meet with the former crown prince of Iran

今天的經理人Feb 2026

...改变自己?你只是没看见自己手握“内向者的牌”

. . . gǎi biàn zì jǐ ? nǐ zhī shì méi kàn jiàn zì jǐ shǒu wò nèi xiàng zhě de wáng pái

... Change yourself? You just don't see yourself holding the "trump card of an introvert"

三立新聞網Feb 2026

马年投资4主轴曝光 春盛分析师这样说

mǎ nián tóu zī 4 zhǔ zhóu pù guāng wáng chūn shèng fēn xī shī zhè yàng shuō

The 4 main axes of investment in the Year of the Horse were exposed, and analyst Wang Chunsheng said so

百度新闻Feb 2026

米兰冬奥|有爱人也有惺惺相惜的对手,心迪与瑞士选..

mǐ lán dōng ào yǒu ài rén yě yǒu 惺 惺 xiāng xī de duì shǒu , wáng xīn dí yǔ ruì shì xuǎn . .

Milan Winter Olympics|There are lovers and sympathetic opponents, Wang Xindi and Switzerland choos:

百度新闻Feb 2026

心迪:在自己圆梦的同时,也帮助徐梦桃圆梦...

wáng xīn dí : zài zì jǐ yuán mèng de tóng shí , yě bāng zhù xú mèng táo yuán mèng . . .

Wang Xindi: While realizing his dream, he also helped Xu Mengtao realize his dream...

Tatoeba

,你是哪年生的?

Xiǎo Wáng, nǐ shì nǎ nián shēng de?

Wang, what year were you born?

Tatoeba

你忠于我还是国

Nǐ zhōngyú wǒ háishi guówáng?

To whom are you loyal: me or the king?

Tatoeba

听从了我的劝告,把烟戒了!

Xiǎo Wáng tīngcóng le wǒ de quàngào, bǎ yān jiè le!

Xiao Wang followed my advice and quit smoking.

Tatoeba

我长大后想当国

Wǒ zhǎngdà hòu xiǎng dāng guówáng.

When I grow up, I want to be a king.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced wáng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 王 (wáng) mean in Chinese?
王 (wáng) primarily means "king or monarch." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #299 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 王 have?
王 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 王?
The radical associated with 王 is 王 (jade). This radical appears in many characters related to jade.
What are the components of 王?
王 is composed of: 一 (structural), 土 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱一土 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 王?
Common words with 王 include: 国王 (guó wáng, "king"); 女王 (nǚ wáng, "queen"); 王子 (wáng zǐ, "prince"); 王八 (wáng ba, "softshell turtle"); 王国 (wáng guó, "kingdom"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 王 (wáng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wáng: 汪 (expanse of water), 亡 (to die), 网 (net), 往 (to go (in a direction)), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 王 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 王 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.