抢劫

• Pinyin: qiǎng jié
• Hanzi breakdown: 抢 = 扌(hand radical) + 仓 (phonetic — to grab with the hand); 劫 = 去 + 力 (to go + force — to seize by force, to plunder)

Meaning

To commit robbery; to forcibly take property from a person or place through threats or violence.

The standard legal and everyday term for robbery. More formal than 抢夺 in legal contexts and often implies a degree of premeditation or threat rather than a purely impulsive snatch. Used in news reporting, legal documents, and everyday discussion of crime. Appears in compound terms such as 抢劫罪 (the crime of robbery) and 武装抢劫 (armed robbery).

Examples

1. 三名蒙面男子持刀闯入便利店，抢劫了收银台内的现金后迅速逃窜。 Three masked men barged into a convenience store with knives, robbed the cash register, and then fled quickly.
2. 警方侦破了一起连环抢劫案，将活跃在城市周边的犯罪团伙一网打尽。 Police cracked a series of robberies and rounded up the criminal gang that had been operating around the outskirts of the city.
3. 受害者事后向警察详细描述了抢劫经过，并协助警方完成了嫌疑人的画像。 Afterward, the victim gave police a detailed account of the robbery and helped them complete a suspect sketch.

Usage Guide

Context: law, news, everyday

Tone: negative

Do Say

• 案发当晚，嫌疑人持仿制枪支闯入金铺，威胁工作人员后抢走大量黄金首饰，整个犯罪过程被店内监控完整记录。(On the evening of the incident, the suspect entered the jewellery shop armed with a replica firearm, threatened the staff, and seized a large quantity of gold jewellery; the entire crime was fully captured by the shop's surveillance system.)
• 检察院以抢劫罪对三名被告提起诉讼，指控其于去年深夜对多名独行女性实施暴力并劫取财物，手段极为恶劣。(The procuratorate filed charges of robbery against the three defendants, accusing them of violently attacking several women travelling alone in the late hours of the previous year and seizing their belongings — an act of extreme viciousness.)

Don't Say

• 超市在打折，我们去抢劫吧 — using 抢劫 (robbery) jokingly to describe rushing to a sale trivialises a serious crime; use 抢购 (rush to buy/snap up) or 扫货 (sweep the shelves) instead

Origin & History

抢 (to snatch/rob) + 劫 (to plunder/rob)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal