撰 (zhuàn): to compose, to compile

撰 (zhuàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to compose.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 巽 (phonetic). It ranks #2238 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 撰 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 compose
  2. to compile

Etymology & Origin

撰

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌巽 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
撰写verbzhuàn xiěto write
撰稿人zhuàn gǎo rénauthor (of a manuscript)
杜撰verbdù zhuànto fabricate
编撰verbbiān zhuànto compile
撰稿verbzhuàn gǎoto write (an article for publication)
撰文verbzhuàn wénto write an article
修撰verbxiū zhuànto compile
撰述verbzhuàn shùto compose (a piece of writing)
撰录zhuàn lùto compile and record
撰拟zhuàn nǐto draft
10
Total compounds
70
As first character
30
As last character
0
As middle character

撰 appears in 10 compound words: 70 as the first character, 30 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 撰 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

稿gǎo
0.5805,820 co-occurrences
写xiě
0.55417,509 co-occurrences
修xiū
0.4174,890 co-occurrences
编biān
0.3963,064 co-occurrences
杜dù
0.3831,372 co-occurrences
文wén
0.36912,900 co-occurrences
旨zhǐ
0.364648 co-occurrences
碑bēi
0.355706 co-occurrences
栏lán
0.342210 co-occurrences
刊kān
0.335894 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈撰着孩子的手,慢慢地过马路。

mā mā zhuàn zhe hái zǐ de shǒu , màn màn dì guò mǎ lù .

Mom held her child's hand as they slowly crossed the street.

爱范儿Aug 2026

模型将投资研究任务拆成信息检索、研究推理、估值建模和研报撰写四类能力。

mó xíng jiāng tóu zī yán jiū rèn wù chāi chéng xìn xī jiǎn suǒ , yán jiū tuī lǐ , gū zhí jiàn mó hé yán bào zhuàn xiě sì lèi néng lì .

The model breaks down investment research tasks into four categories of capabilities: information retrieval, research reasoning, valuation modeling, and research report writing.

奇客SolidotAug 2026

他指出,邮件是企业邮件系统自动发送的,并非人工撰写,这些都是内部系统配置错误导致的。

tā zhǐ chū , yóu jiàn shì qǐ yè yóu jiàn xì tǒng zì dòng fā sòng de , bìng fēi rén gōng zhuàn xiě , zhè xiē dōu shì nèi bù xì tǒng pèi zhì cuò wù dǎo zhì de .

He pointed out that the emails were sent automatically by the company's email system and were not written manually; these issues were all caused by errors in the internal system configuration.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

《甲骨文摹本大系》编撰出版期间,已完成新缀合甲骨1200多组。

jiǎ gǔ wén 摹 běn dà xì biān zhuàn chū bǎn qī jiān , yǐ wán chéng xīn zhuì gě jiǎ gǔ 1 2 0 0 duō zǔ .

During the compilation and publication of *The Comprehensive Series of Oracle Bone Inscription Copies*, more than 1,200 sets of oracle bone inscriptions were successfully reassembled.

東方日報Mar 2026

郑少秋神隐多年终于蒲头 亲自撰文谈近况...

zhèng shǎo qiū shén yǐn duō nián zhōng yú 蒲 tóu qīn zì zhuàn wén tán jìn kuàng . . .

Cheng Siu-chiu, who has been out of the public eye for years, has finally resurfaced and written a personal post about his current situation...

StheadlineMar 2026

...潘为撑乌克兰放弃奥斯卡盛典 获泽连斯基亲撰文感谢

. . . pān wéi chēng wū kè lán fàng qì ào sī kǎ shèng diǎn huò zé lián sī jī qīn zhuàn wén gǎn xiè

...Pan Weicheng skipped the Oscars to show support for Ukraine and received a personal thank-you note from Zelenskyy

Tatoeba

数学是神用来撰写宇宙的语言。

Shùxué shì shén yònglái zhuànxiě yǔzhòu de yǔyán.

Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 撰 (zhuàn) mean in Chinese?
撰 (zhuàn) primarily means "to compose." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2238 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 撰 have?
撰 is written with 15 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 撰?
The radical associated with 撰 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 撰?
撰 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 巽 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌巽 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 撰?
Common words with 撰 include: 撰写 (zhuàn xiě, "to write"); 撰稿人 (zhuàn gǎo rén, "author (of a manuscript)"); 杜撰 (dù zhuàn, "to fabricate"); 编撰 (biān zhuàn, "to compile"); 撰稿 (zhuàn gǎo, "to write (an article for publication)"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 撰 (zhuàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuàn: 馔 (food), 转 (to turn, to transfer), 专 (for a particular person, occasion, purpose), 赚 (to earn), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 撰 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 撰 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 撰 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.