蟾 (chán): toad ("chán" represents the sound of its croaking), (mythology) the three-legged toad said to exist in the moon, (metonym) the moon

蟾 (chán) is a Chinese character meaning “toad ("chán" represents the sound of its croaking).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虫 (semantic) and 詹 (phonetic). It ranks #3898 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蟾 insect. Its radical form 虫 (insect) appears in many related characters such as 虫 (chóng, insect), 蛇 (shé, snake), 蛋 (dàn, egg).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. toad ("chán" represents the sound of its croaking)
  2. (mythology) the three-legged toad said to exist in the moon
  3. (metonym) the moon

Etymology & Origin

蟾

pictophoneticinsect

Decomposition: ⿰虫詹 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蟾蜍chán chútoad
蟾宫折桂phrasechán gōng zhé guìlit. plucking a branch of osmanthus from the Toad Palace (i.e. the moon)
爪蟾nounzhuǎ chánXenopus (type of frog)
3
Total compounds
67
As first character
33
As last character
0
As middle character

蟾 appears in 3 compound words: 67 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

蟾宫折桂chángōngzhéguì

to pass the imperial examination

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

不遣絮云翳空宇,早扶蟾魄上东冈。

bù qiǎn xù yún 翳 kōng yǔ , zǎo fú chán pò shàng dōng gāng .

Let no fluffy clouds obscure the sky; may the moon rise early over the eastern hill.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

此外,画面还有鹿,有松树,寿星骑着仙鹤乘风而来,右下角还有刘海戏金蟾。

cǐ wài , huà miàn hái yǒu lù , yǒu sōng shù , shòu xīng qí zhe xiān hè chéng fēng ér lái , yòu xià jiǎo hái yǒu liú hǎi xì jīn chán .

In addition, the painting features deer and pine trees; the God of Longevity rides a crane as he arrives on the wind; and in the lower right corner, there is a depiction of Liu Hai playing with the Golden Toad.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

每次在天蟾逸夫舞台演出,都能感受到上海观众极高的审美水准和热情。

měi cì zài tiān chán yì fū wǔ tái yǎn chū , dōu néng gǎn shòu dào shàng hǎi guān zhòng jí gāo de shěn měi shuǐ zhǔn hé rè qíng .

Every time I perform on the Tianchan Yifu Stage, I am struck by the Shanghai audience’s exceptional aesthetic sensibilities and enthusiasm.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

今年“五一”期间,上海天蟾逸夫舞台《击鼓骂曹》《扈家庄》《宋江题诗》折子戏专场落幕。

jīn nián wǔ yī qī jiān , shàng hǎi tiān chán yì fū wǔ tái jī gǔ mà cáo 扈 jiā zhuāng sòng jiāng tí shī zhé zǐ xì zhuān chǎng luò mù .

During this year’s May Day holiday, a special performance of the one-act plays *Beating the Drum to Curse Cao*, *Hu Jiazhuang*, and *Song Jiang Inscribes a Poem* at the Shanghai Tianchan Yifu Stage came to a close.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 虫 (insect) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蟾 (chán) mean in Chinese?
蟾 (chán) primarily means "toad ("chán" represents the sound of its croaking)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3898 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 蟾 and 瞻?
蟾 (chán) and 瞻 (zhān) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 虫 vs 目 (same 詹 component).
How many strokes does 蟾 have?
蟾 is written with 19 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 蟾?
The radical associated with 蟾 is 虫 (insect). This radical appears in many characters related to insect.
What are the components of 蟾?
蟾 is composed of: 虫 (semantic), 詹 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰虫詹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蟾?
Common words with 蟾 include: 蟾蜍 (chán chú, "toad"); 蟾宫折桂 (chán gōng zhé guì, "lit. plucking a branch of osmanthus from the Toad Palace (i.e. the moon)"); 爪蟾 (zhuǎ chán, "Xenopus (type of frog)"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
Is 蟾 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蟾 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蟾 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.