蝉 (chán): cicada

蝉 (chán) is a Chinese character meaning “cicada.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 虫 (semantic) and 单 (phonetic). It ranks #3606 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蝉 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. cicada

Etymology & Origin

蝉

pictophoneticinsect

Decomposition: ⿰虫单 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蝉联verbchán liánto continue in a post
金蝉脱壳phrasejīn chán tuō qiàolit. the cicada sheds its carapace (idiom)
寒蝉nounhán chána cicada in cold weather (used as a metaphor for sb who keeps their thoughts to themself)
蝉翼nounchán yìcicada's wing
蝉鸣nounchán míngsong of cicadas
寒蝉效应nounhán chán xiào yìngthe chilling effect of a climate of fear in which people are afraid to speak their mind
金蝉nounjīn chánGolden Cicada
蝉科chán kēCicadidae, homopterous insect family including cicada
螳螂捕蝉,黄雀在后táng láng bǔ chán , huáng què zài hòu(lit.) the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the siskin behind (idiom, from Daoist classic Zhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 ...
蝉衣nounchán yīcicada slough (used in TCM)
噤若寒蝉phrasejìn ruò hán chánto keep quiet out of fear (idiom)
螳螂捕蝉táng láng bǔ chánsee 螳螂捕蟬,黃雀在後|螳螂捕蝉,黄雀在后
貂蝉diāo chánDiaochan (-192), one of the four legendary beauties 四大美女, in fiction a famous beauty at the break-...
蝉猴chán hóu(coll.) newly-emerged cicada nymph
蝉蜕chán tuìcicada slough
16
Total compounds
50
As first character
31
As last character
19
As middle character

蝉 appears in 16 compound words: 50 as the first character, 31 as the last, and 19 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

金蝉脱壳jīnchántuōqiào

to be able to escape from a (normally sticky) situation without other pertinent parties noticing it

phrase
噤若寒蝉jìnruòhánchán

to remain silent out of fear; to refrain unwillingly from speaking out

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

同年,率队获得克罗地亚联赛总冠军和克罗地亚杯冠军,并蝉联总决赛MVP。

tóng nián , lǜ duì huò dé kè luó dì yà lián sài zǒng guàn jūn hé kè luó dì yà bēi guàn jūn , bìng chán lián zǒng jué sài M V P .

That same year, he led his team to the Croatian League championship and the Croatian Cup title, and was named Finals MVP for the second consecutive year.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

当决赛落幕,他登顶本届世界杯射手榜,成为历史上首位蝉联世界杯金靴奖的球员。

dāng jué sài luò mù , tā dēng dǐng běn jiè shì jiè bēi shè shǒu bǎng , chéng wéi lì shǐ shàng shǒu wèi chán lián shì jiè bēi jīn xuē jiǎng de qiú yuán .

When the final ended, he topped the scoring charts for this World Cup, becoming the first player in history to win the World Cup Golden Boot two years in a row.

爱范儿Jul 2026

以下为本期榜单主要看点: 腾讯蝉联中国发行商收入榜首。

yǐ xià wéi běn qī bǎng dān zhǔ yào kàn diǎn : téng xùn chán lián zhōng guó fā xíng shāng shōu rù bǎng shǒu .

Here are the highlights of this week’s rankings: Tencent retained its top spot on the list of China’s highest-grossing publishers.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

中新网 福州7月8日电 (叶秋云)夏蝉高鸣,又是一年荔红时。

zhōng xīn wǎng fú zhōu 7 yuè 8 rì diàn ( yè qiū yún ) xià chán gāo míng , yòu shì yī nián lì hóng shí .

China News Network, Fuzhou, July 8 (Ye Qiuyun) — As the summer cicadas chirp loudly, it is once again the season when the lychees turn red.

中国新闻网·体育May 2026

巴黎圣日耳曼点球大战击败阿森纳 蝉联欧冠冠军

bā lí shèng rì ěr màn diǎn qiú dà zhàn jī bài ā sēn nà chán lián ōu guàn guàn jūn

Paris Saint-Germain Defeats Arsenal in a Penalty Shootout to Retain the Champions League Title

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 虫 (insect) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced chán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蝉 (chán) mean in Chinese?
蝉 (chán) primarily means "cicada." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3606 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 蝉 and 弹?
蝉 (chán) and 弹 (dàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 虫 vs 弓 (same 单 component).
How many strokes does 蝉 have?
蝉 is written with 14 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 蝉?
The radical associated with 蝉 is 虫 (insect). This radical appears in many characters related to insect.
What are the components of 蝉?
蝉 is composed of: 虫 (semantic), 单 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰虫单 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蝉?
Common words with 蝉 include: 蝉联 (chán lián, "to continue in a post"); 金蝉脱壳 (jīn chán tuō qiào, "lit. the cicada sheds its carapace (idiom)"); 寒蝉 (hán chán, "a cicada in cold weather (used as a metaphor for sb who keeps their thoughts to themself)"); 蝉翼 (chán yì, "cicada's wing"); 蝉鸣 (chán míng, "song of cicadas"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蝉 (chán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chán: 婵 (used in 嬋娟|婵娟 and 嬋媛|婵媛). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蝉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 蝉 and the traditional form is 蟬.

Practice writing 蝉 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.