(dān): bill, list, form, single, only, sole

(dān) is a Chinese character meaning “bill.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #389 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bill
  2. list
  3. form
  4. single
  5. only
  6. sole

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjectivejiǎn dānsimple3
nounmíng dānlist of names3
adverbdān dúalone5
noundān wèiunit (of measure)4
nounzhàng dānbill6
nouncài dānmenu3
nounchuáng dānbed sheet5
adjectivedān chúnsimple6
noundìng dān(purchase) order6
noundān yuánunit (forming an entity)5
adjectivedān diàomonotonous6
adjectivedān yīsingle5
verbxià dānto place an order6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dān shēnunmarried
dān zǐthe only son of a family
dān cíword
chuán dānleaflet
dān chē(coll.) bicycle
dān dānonly
dān gànto work on one's own
dān rénone person
bù dānnot the only
bǎo dānguarantee slip
dān qīnsingle parent
dān chéngone-way (ticket)
bèi dān(bed) sheet
dān dǎsingles (in sports)
dān gesingle
100
Total compounds
82
As first character
18
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 82 as the first character, 18 as the last, and 0 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.

0.664190,962 co-occurrences
jiǎn
0.61295,902 co-occurrences
wèi
0.589504,728 co-occurrences
bǎo
0.550194,742 co-occurrences
0.53863,150 co-occurrences
jiǎng
0.5065,628 co-occurrences
gàng
0.5035,424 co-occurrences
0.500198,762 co-occurrences
bǎng
0.49956,655 co-occurrences
chún
0.49115,222 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

dāndǎdúdòuHSK 5+

to fight alone

phrase
dān dāo fù huìHSK 7+

lit. to go among enemies with only one's sword (idiom); fig. to go alone into enemy lines

phrase
dān lián jiē zhànHSK 4+

single attachment station (telecommunications)

phrase
dānqiāngpǐmǎHSK 6+

single-handed; unassisted

phrase
dānqīn jiātíngHSK 4+

single-parent family

noun
dānrénpǐmǎHSK 5+

single-handed; all by oneself

phrase
dānshēn guìzúHSK 4+

well-off single; bachelor

noun
dān zhāng huì piàoHSK 5+

sola bill of exchange (international trade)

phrase
huòbùdānxíngHSK 5+

misfortunes never come singly; it never rains but it pours

phrase
jiǎndān-míngliǎoHSK 3+

clear and simple; in simple terms

phrase
shìdānlìbóHSK 5+

to be small in size and of weak strength

phrase
xíngdānyǐngzhīHSK 5+

lonely

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个问题看似简,实际上需要深入思考才能回答。

Zhè gè wèntí kàn sì jiǎndān, shíjì shang xūyào shēnrù sīkǎo cáinéng huídá.

This question looks simple, but actually requires deep thinking to answer.

百度新闻Feb 2026

爆了!90后男生春节可赚16万元

dìng dān bào le ! 9 0 hòu nán shēng chūn jié kě zhuàn 1 6 wàn yuán

The order is exploding! Post-90s boys can earn 160,000 yuan during the Spring Festival

百度新闻Feb 2026

我的新年“特供”丨订翻倍!小碗梨成春节假期“新宠..

wǒ de xīn nián tè gōng 丨 dìng shàn fān bèi ! xiǎo wǎn lí chéng chūn jié jiǎ qī xīn chǒng . .

The new year's special 丨 order doubled! The newest and most popular way to get the most out of the Chinese New Year is to get the most out of the Chinese New Year.

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨9年前带3岁女儿开出租车的亲妈妈,除..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 nián qián dài suì nǚ ér kāi chū zū chē de shàn qīn mā mā , chú . .

The single mother who drove a cab with her 3-year-old daughter nine years ago is now a member of the New Year's Eve...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...5年收获满满,山东信息职业技术学院向合作位..

. . . nián shōu huò mǎn mǎn , shān dōng xìn xī zhí yè jì shù xué yuàn xiàng gě zuò shàn wèi . .

...Five years of fruitful collaboration, Shandong Information Vocational College extends its gratitude to partner institutions...

百度新闻Feb 2026

千问“一句话下”受年轻人追捧,00后占比超40%..

qiān wèn yī gōu huà xià shàn shòu nián qīng rén zhuī pěng , hòu zhàn bǐ chāo . .

Qianwen's "One-Sentence Ordering" Gains Popularity Among Young People, with Gen Z Users Making Up Over 40%...

Tatoeba

这个词是什么意思?

Zhège dāncí shì shénme yìsi?

What does this word mean?

Tatoeba

你会说简的英语吗?

Nǐ huì shuō jiǎndān de Yīngyǔ ma?

Could you say that in plain English?

Tatoeba

请把帐给我好吗?

Qǐng bǎ zhàngdān gěi wǒ hǎo ma?

May I have the check, please?

Tatoeba

我可以看一下酒吗?

Wǒ kěyǐ kàn yīxià jiǔdān ma?

May I see the wine list?

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 单 (dān) mean in Chinese?
单 (dān) primarily means "bill." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #389 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 单 have?
单 is written with 8 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 单?
The radical associated with 单 is 十 (ten). This radical appears in many characters related to ten.
What are the components of 单?
单 is composed of: 丷 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 单?
Common words with 单 include: 简单 (jiǎn dān, "simple"); 名单 (míng dān, "list of names"); 单独 (dān dú, "alone"); 单身 (dān shēn, "unmarried"); 单位 (dān wèi, "unit (of measure)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 单 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 单 and the traditional form is 單.

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.