澹 (dàn): surname Tan, tranquil, placid

澹 (dàn) is a Chinese character meaning “tranquil.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 詹 (phonetic). It ranks #5767 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 澹 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 河 (hé, river), 海 (hǎi, sea), 洋 (yáng, ocean).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 氵 water16 strokesFrequency #5767氵 semantic詹 phonetic

Definitions

  1. surname Tan
  2. tranquil
  3. placid

Etymology & Origin

澹

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵詹 (layout: left-right)

Components:氵semantic詹phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
澹然dàn ránvariant of 淡然
惨澹adjectivecǎn dànvariant of 慘淡|惨淡
恬澹tián dànvariant of 恬淡
澹泊dàn bóvariant of 淡泊
4
Total compounds
50
As first character
50
As last character
0
As middle character

澹 appears in 4 compound words: 50 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

古籍《澹生堂藏书训略》背后 藏着怎样的江南藏书精神？

gǔ jí dàn shēng táng zàng shū xùn lüè bèi hòu zàng zhe zěn yàng de jiāng nán zàng shū jīng shén ?

What Spirit of Book Collecting in the Jiangnan Region Lies Behind the Ancient Text *A Brief Commentary on the Dansheng Hall Collection*?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

没méi活huó海hǎi清qīng消xiāo流liú满mǎn注zhù激jī洛luò

Related Characters

河hé海hǎi洋yáng江jiāng湖hú溪xī流liú池chí汤tāng汁zhī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 澹 (dàn) mean in Chinese?
澹 (dàn) primarily means "tranquil." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #5767 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 澹 and 蟾?
澹 (dàn) and 蟾 (chán) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 虫 (same 詹 component).
How many strokes does 澹 have?
澹 is written with 16 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 澹?
The radical associated with 澹 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 澹?
澹 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 詹 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵詹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 澹?
Common words with 澹 include: 澹然 (dàn rán, "variant of 淡然"); 惨澹 (cǎn dàn, "variant of 慘淡|惨淡"); 恬澹 (tián dàn, "variant of 恬淡"); 澹泊 (dàn bó, "variant of 淡泊"). There are over 4 compound words containing this character.
Is 澹 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 澹 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 澹 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

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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.