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

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

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native 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

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌屋 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
wò zhùto grip
zài wò(fig.) to hold in one's hands
wò yǒuto have
jǐn wòto hold firmly, not let go
wò quánto make a fist
wò lì(strength of one's) grip
wò biéto shake hands
dà quán zài wòto be in a position of power
wú bǎ wòuncertain
wò chíto hold in one's hand
zhì zhū zài wòlit. to hold the pearl of wisdom (idiom)
zuǒ quàn zài wòto be assured of success (idiom)
15
Total compounds
47
As first character
53
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 15 compound words: 47 as the first character, 53 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.82987 co-occurrences
zhǎng
0.80898,725 co-occurrences
shùn
0.72487 co-occurrences
huà
0.63687 co-occurrences
0.63287 co-occurrences
0.58534,344 co-occurrences
xiě
0.54587 co-occurrences
0.53389 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.52189 co-occurrences
shǒu
0.48735,772 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

dàquánzàiwòHSK 5+

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

phrase
zuǒ quàn zài wòHSK 6+

to be assured of success (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

两人手言和,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

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「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

母亲无意中住了椅子。

Mǔqīn wúyìzhōng wòzhù le yǐzi.

Unconsciously my mom took hold of the chair.

Tatoeba

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

Homophones — Characters pronounced

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 15 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 握 (wò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation wò: 窝 (nest), 我 (I), 沃 (fertile), 卧 (to lie). 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 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.