撞 (zhuàng): to knock against, to bump into, to run into

撞 (zhuàng) is a Chinese character meaning “to knock against.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 童 (phonetic). It ranks #1530 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 撞 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 knock against
  2. to bump into
  3. to run into

Etymology & Origin

撞

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌童 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 撞

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
碰撞verbpèng zhuàngto collide6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
撞击verbzhuàng jīto strike
撞车verbzhuàng chēto crash (into another car)
撞见verbzhuàng jiànto meet by accident
冲撞verbchōng zhuàngto collide
莽撞adjectivemǎng zhuàngrash
相撞verbxiāng zhuàngcollision
横冲直撞phrasehéng chōng zhí zhuàng(idiom) to barge through, jostling and elbowing
顶撞verbdǐng zhuàngto contradict (elders or superiors)
跌跌撞撞adjectivediē die zhuàng zhuàngto stagger along
撞针nounzhuàng zhēnfiring pin
撞倒verbzhuàng dǎoto knock down
撞伤zhuàng shāngbruise
招摇撞骗phrasezhāo yáo zhuàng piàn(idiom) to dupe people by passing oneself off as a well-connected individual or a figure of authority
对撞机nounduì zhuàng jīa particle collider
大型强子对撞机dà xíng qiáng zǐ duì zhuàng jīLarge Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
46
Total compounds
46
As first character
33
As last character
22
As middle character

撞 appears in 46 compound words: 46 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 22 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 撞 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

碰pèng
0.68616,237 co-occurrences
坑kēng
0.6029,208 co-occurrences
击jī
0.56614,218 co-occurrences
漾yàng
0.51410 co-occurrences
祸huò
0.50142 co-occurrences
跌diē
0.4711,218 co-occurrences
擦cā
0.455739 co-occurrences
骑qí
0.45449 co-occurrences
莽mǎng
0.453484 co-occurrences
鞍ān
0.44910 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

跌跌撞撞diēdiēzhuàngzhuàngHSK 6+

doddering; tottering; faltering; rash; reckless; staggering along in life

adjective
横冲直撞héngchōngzhízhuàngHSK 6+

to push one's way by shoving or bumping; to barge about

phrase
误打误撞wùdǎwùzhuàngHSK 5+

by accident; by chance

phrase
招摇撞骗zhāoyáozhuàngpiànHSK 5+

to pass oneself off as someone prominent and deceive people; to swagger and swindle

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing 撞.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

两辆车在路口相撞,幸好没有人员伤亡。

Liǎng liàng chē zài lùkǒu xiāngzhuàng, xìnghǎo méiyǒu rényuán shāngwáng.

Two cars collided at the intersection; fortunately, there were no casualties.

NewtalkFeb 2026

男子骑车出游经南横疑自撞护栏 坠边坡送医不治

nán zǐ qí chē chū yóu jīng nán héng yí zì zhuàng hù lán zhuì biān pō sòng yī bù zhì

The man was riding a bicycle through South Heng and was suspected of crashing into a guardrail and falling down a slope and was taken to hospital where he died

東森新聞Feb 2026

8岁男骑车游南横 撞护栏抛飞摔溪底亡

8 suì nán qí chē yóu nán héng zhuàng hù lán pāo fēi shuāi xī de wáng

An 8-year-old male rode a bicycle to the south and crashed into a guardrail and fell to the bottom of the stream and died

東森新聞Feb 2026

年假首日撞! 国1后里2车追撞翻 撞瞬曝光

nián jiǎ shǒu rì zhuàng ! guó 1 hòu lǐ 2 chē zhuī zhuàng fān zhuàng shùn pù guāng

The first day of the annual holiday crashed! After the 1st year, 2 cars chased and overturned and the collision was instantly exposed

公視新聞網 PnnFeb 2026

机车擦撞南横瓦筏哈桥护栏 骑士摔落送医仍不治

jī chē cā zhuàng nán héng wǎ 筏 hā qiáo hù lán qí shì shuāi luò sòng yī réng bù zhì

The locomotive collided with the guardrail of the Ha Bridge on the South Hengwa Raft, and the rider fell and was sent to the hospital and still died

百度新闻Feb 2026

...新春见闻)探访阿波迪科技小院:中国春节“撞上”巴..

. . . xīn chūn jiàn wén tàn fǎng ā bō dí kē jì xiǎo yuàn zhōng guó chūn jié zhuàng shǎng bā . .

... (Chinese New Year) Visit to Abodi Science and Technology Center: Chinese New Year "collides" with Ba...

Tatoeba

汤姆把头撞到车顶了。

Tāng mǔ bǎtóu zhuàngdào chē dǐng le.

Tom bumped his head on the roof of the car.

Tatoeba

哎哟,撞到你了,对不起!

āiyō, zhuàngdào nǐ le, duìbuqǐ!

Ah, I hit you, sorry!

Tatoeba

我头撞到了门,肿了一块。

Wǒ tóu zhuàngdào le mén, zhǒng le yī kuài.

I bumped my head against the door and got a lump.

Tatoeba

他过马路时差点被车撞。

Tā guòmǎlù shíchā diǎn bèi chē zhuàng.

He was almost hit by a car while crossing the street.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhuàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 撞 (zhuàng) mean in Chinese?
撞 (zhuàng) primarily means "to knock against." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1530 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 撞 and 幢?
撞 (zhuàng) and 幢 (chuáng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 巾 (same 童 component).
How many strokes does 撞 have?
撞 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 撞?
The radical associated with 撞 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 撞?
撞 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 童 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌童 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 撞?
Common words with 撞 include: 撞击 (zhuàng jī, "to strike"); 撞车 (zhuàng chē, "to crash (into another car)"); 撞见 (zhuàng jiàn, "to meet by accident"); 碰撞 (pèng zhuàng, "to collide"); 冲撞 (chōng zhuàng, "to collide"). There are over 46 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 撞 (zhuàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhuàng: 装 (dress, install), 状 ((bound form) form), 庄 (village, manor), 壮 (Zhuang ethnic group of Guangxi, the PRC's second most numerous ethnic group), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 撞 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 撞 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 撞 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.