握 (wò): to hold, to grasp, to clench (one's fist), (bound form) to have in one's control

握 (wò) is a Chinese character meaning “to hold.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 屋 (phonetic). It ranks #1031 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 握 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 hold
  2. to grasp
  3. to clench (one's fist)
  4. (bound form) to have in one's control

Etymology & Origin

握

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌屋 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 握

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
掌握verbzhǎng wòto grasp (often fig.)5
把握verb/nounbǎ wòto grasp (also fig.)5
握手verbwò shǒuto shake hands5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
握住wò zhùto grip
在握verbzài wò(fig.) to hold in one's hands
握有wò yǒuto have
紧握verbjǐn wòto hold firmly, not let go
握拳verbwò quánto make a fist
握力nounwò lì(strength of one's) grip
握别verbwò biéto shake hands
大权在握phrasedà quán zài wòto be in a position of power
无把握wú bǎ wòuncertain
握持verbwò chíto hold in one's hand
智珠在握zhì zhū zài wòlit. to hold the pearl of wisdom (idiom)
左券在握zuǒ quàn zài wòto be assured of success (idiom)
握爪wò zhuǎ(humorous) to shake hands
16
Total compounds
50
As first character
50
As last character
0
As middle character

握 appears in 16 compound words: 50 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 0 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 握 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

掌zhǎng
0.80333,054 co-occurrences
序xù
0.719106 co-occurrences
顺shùn
0.645106 co-occurrences
笔bǐ
0.578108 co-occurrences
画huà
0.528107 co-occurrences
写xiě
0.499106 co-occurrences
把bǎ
0.49711,505 co-occurrences
手shǒu
0.48011,924 co-occurrences
需xū
0.457108 co-occurrences
柄bǐng
0.456642 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

大权在握dàquánzàiwòHSK 5+

to have (hold) great power in one's hands; to be in a position of power

phrase
左券在握zuǒ quàn zài wòHSK 6+

to be assured of success (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

两人握手言和,结束了长期的争执。

Liǎng rén wò shǒu yánhé, jiéshù le chángqī de zhēngzhí.

The two shook hands and made peace, ending their long-standing dispute.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

古天樂收馮素波利是表現恭敬 逐一與粉絲握手:覺得比錢更緊要

gǔ tiān 樂 shōu 馮 sù bō lì shì biǎo 現 gōng jìng zhú yī 與 fěn 絲 wò shǒu 覺 dé bǐ 錢 gēng 緊 yāo

Goo Dun-lok received a gift from Fung So-po as a sign of respect, shaking hands with fans one by one: he feels it's more important than money.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

掌握 AI 新基建商機 中信009819准募...

zhǎng wò xīn jī jiàn shāng 機 zhōng xìn zhǔn mù . . .

Seizing AI New Infrastructure Opportunities: CITIC 009819 Prepares for Subscription...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

...券:國內製藥供應鏈景氣度上行持續 建議把握CXO行業兩大核心主線

. . . quàn 國 內 製 藥 gōng 應 鏈 jǐng 氣 dù shàng háng chí 續 jiàn 議 bǎ wò háng 業 兩 dà hé xīn zhǔ 線

... Domestic Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Boom Continues to Suggest Grasping the Two Core Main Lines of CXO Industry

InvestingFeb 2026

...券:国内制药供应链景气度上行持续 建议把握CXO行业两大核心主线

. . . quàn guó nèi zhì yào gōng yīng liàn jǐng qì dù shàng háng chí xù jiàn yì bǎ wò háng yè liǎng dà hé xīn zhǔ xiàn

... Coupon:Domestic pharmaceutical supply chain boom continues to recommend grasping the CXO industry two core main lines

今天的經理人Feb 2026

...同事,總是想改變自己?你只是沒看見自己手握「內向者的王牌」

. . . tóng shì , 總 shì xiǎng gǎi 變 zì jǐ ? nǐ zhī shì 沒 kàn 見 zì jǐ shǒu wò 內 xiàng zhě de wáng pái

... Colleague, always trying to change yourself? You just don't see yourself holding the introvert's trump card.

Tatoeba

要掌握法语一点都不容易。

Yào zhǎngwò Fǎyǔ yīdiǎn dōu bù róngyì.

It's not easy to master French at all.

Tatoeba

很难在2、3年内掌握法语。

Hěn nán zài liǎng, sān nián nèi zhǎngwò Fǎyǔ.

It's quite difficult to master French in 2 or 3 years.

Tatoeba

母亲无意中握住了椅子。

Mǔqīn wúyìzhōng wòzhù le yǐzi.

Unconsciously my mom took hold of the chair.

Tatoeba

握着我的手。我们两个将要建立一个乌托邦。

Wò zhe wǒ de shǒu. wǒmen liǎng gè jiāngyào jiànlì yī gè wūtuōbāng.

Take my hand. The two of us are going to construct a utopia.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced wò

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 握 (wò) mean in Chinese?
握 (wò) primarily means "to hold." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1031 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 握 have?
握 is written with 12 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 握?
The radical associated with 握 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 握?
握 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 屋 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌屋 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 握?
Common words with 握 include: 掌握 (zhǎng wò, "to grasp (often fig.)"); 把握 (bǎ wò, "to grasp (also fig.)"); 握手 (wò shǒu, "to shake hands"); 握住 (wò zhù, "to grip"); 在握 (zài wò, "(fig.) to hold in one's hands"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 握 (wò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wò: 我 (I), 卧 (to lie), 沃 (fertile), 窝 (nest), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 握 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 握 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 握 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.