(dān): red, pellet, powder

(dān) is a Chinese character meaning “red.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1272 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a red pellet 丶 from a mine 井. Its radical form (dot) appears in many related characters such as (wéi, as (in the capacity of)), (zhǔ, owner), (, to lift).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. red
  2. pellet
  3. powder

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA red pellet 丶 from a mine 井

Decomposition: ⿻冂亠 (layout: overlay)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dān níDanny (name)
dān ní sīDennis (name)
dān ní ěrDaniel (name)
dān fóDenver, Colorado
qiáo dān(name) Jordan
dān màiDenmark
sū dān(loanword) sultan
mǔ dantree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa)
dān dōngsee 丹東市|丹东市[Dan1 dong1 Shi4]
鹿lù tè dānRotterdam, port city in the Netherlands
dān shēn(botany) red sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza)
bù dānBhutan
dān yángsee 丹陽市|丹阳市[Dan1 yang2 Shi4]
dān tiánpubic region
liàn dānto concoct pills of immortality
100
Total compounds
45
As first character
35
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 45 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 20 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.71935,370 co-occurrences
mài
0.64162,917 co-occurrences
0.57127,408 co-occurrences
0.530105,354 co-occurrences
0.52753,598 co-occurrences
róng
0.5204,398 co-occurrences
qiáo
0.4499,306 co-occurrences
0.42921,414 co-occurrences
0.41717,142 co-occurrences
nuó
0.4033,816 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

BùlóngfāngdānHSK 7+

Bloemfontein (a major city and judicial capital of South Africa)

língdānmiàoyàoHSK 7+

miracle cure; wonder pill; panacea

phrase
ShǐdāndùndǎoHSK 7+

Staten Island (a borough of New York, New York, United States)

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo dān zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "丹" correctly, one must master the proper stroke order.

LtnFeb 2026

麦3/24大选 总理拚连任主打国防与格陵...

dān mài 3 2 4 dà xuǎn zǒng lǐ 拚 lián rèn zhǔ dǎ guó fáng yǔ gé líng . . .

Denmark's 3/24 general election Prime Minister is fighting for re-election, focusing on national defense and Green...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

摩根士利:超大规模业者AI支出将超越网路泡沫高...

mó gēn shì dān lì : chāo dà guī mó yè zhě A I zhī chū jiāng chāo yuè wǎng lù pāo mò gāo . . .

Morgan Stanley: AI spending by hyperscalers will surpass the high of the Internet bubble...

LtnFeb 2026

离婚黄子佼半年!孟耿如近况曝光 周薇泄私下互动

lí hūn huáng zǐ 佼 bàn nián ! mèng gěng rú jìn kuàng pù guāng zhōu dān 薇 xiè sī xià hù dòng

Divorced Huang Zijiao for half a year! Meng Gengru's recent situation was exposed, and Zhou Danwei leaked private interactions

中国军网Feb 2026

新春走军营丨万里山河皆战位 一片心护团圆

xīn chūn zǒu jūn yíng 丨 wàn lǐ shān hé jiē zhàn wèi yī piàn dān xīn hù tuán yuán

New Year's walk to the barracks丨Thousands of miles of mountains and rivers are in battle positions, and a piece of heart protects the reunion

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

东南亚加里曼岛附近发生7级地震

dōng nán yà jiā lǐ 曼 dān dǎo fù jìn fā shēng 7 jí dì zhèn

A magnitude 7 earthquake occurred near the island of Kalimantan in Southeast Asia

Tatoeba

先生突然醒了。

Qiáodān xiānsheng tūrán xǐng le.

Mr Jordan woke up suddenly.

Tatoeba

冰岛以前属于麦。

Bīngdǎo yǐqián shǔyú Dānmài.

Iceland used to belong to Denmark.

Tatoeba

威尔逊先生对尼斯很生气。

Wēi'ěrxùn xiānsheng duì Dānnísī hěn shēngqì.

Mr. Wilson is angry at Dennis.

Tatoeba

杰西死寂般沈默地盯着乔看。

Jiéxī sǐjì bān chén mò de dīng zhe Qiáodān kàn.

Jessie stared at Jordan in dead silence.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the dot radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced dān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 丹 (dān) mean in Chinese?
丹 (dān) primarily means "red." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1272 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 丹 have?
丹 is written with 4 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 丹?
The radical associated with 丹 is 丶 (dot). This radical appears in many characters related to dot.
What are the components of 丹?
丹 is composed of: 冂 (structural), 亠 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻冂亠 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 丹?
Common words with 丹 include: 丹尼 (dān ní, "Danny (name)"); 丹尼斯 (dān ní sī, "Dennis (name)"); 丹尼尔 (dān ní ěr, "Daniel (name)"); 丹佛 (dān fó, "Denver, Colorado"); 乔丹 (qiáo dān, "(name) Jordan"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 丹 (dān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dān: 担 (to carry, to undertake), 耽 (to delay), 胆 (gallbladder, courage), 旦 ((literary) dawn), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 丹 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 丹 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.