(dàn): insipid, diluted, weak

(dàn) is a Chinese character meaning “insipid.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1285 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. insipid
  2. diluted
  3. weak

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵炎 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
qīng dànlight (of food, not greasy or strongly flavored)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
chě dànto talk nonsense
lěng dàncold
píng dànflat
dàn wàngto gradually forget as time passes
dàn shuǐpotable water (water with low salt content)
àn dàndark
àn dànvariant of 暗淡[an4 dan4]
píng dàn wú qíordinary and mediocre (idiom)
qīng miáo dàn xiě(idiom) to treat sth as no big deal
dàn chūto fade out (cinema)
dàn dànfaint
dàn huàto water down
chōng dànto dilute
cǎn dàndark
dàn jìoff season
62
Total compounds
58
As first character
32
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 62 compound words: 58 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 10 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.

shuǐ
0.615123,162 co-occurrences
lěng
0.50512,054 co-occurrences
0.50150,730 co-occurrences
cǎn
0.4601,728 co-occurrences
0.4314,530 co-occurrences
àn
0.4235,778 co-occurrences
zōng
0.4141,800 co-occurrences
0.4142,892 co-occurrences
chéng
0.4074,566 co-occurrences
tún
0.399738 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

cūchádànfànHSK 5+

to lead a simple life; to live without fancy food or drink

phrase
dànbómínglìHSK 7+

to not seek fame and wealth

phrase
dàn zhuāng nóng mǒHSK 7+

in light or heavy makeup (idiom)

phrase
píng dàn wú qíHSK 5+

ordinary and mediocre (idiom); nothing to write home about

phrase
qīngmiáodànxiěHSK 5+

to touch on lightly; to mention casually; to play down

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这道菜味道太了,需要加点盐。

Zhè dào cài wèidao tài dàn le, xūyào jiā diǎn yán.

This dish tastes too bland; it needs some salt.

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

〈财报〉惠普财测黯盘后重挫近7% 记忆体价格高涨是硬伤

cái bào huì pǔ cái cè 黯 dàn pán hòu chóng cuò jìn 7 jì yì tǐ jià gé gāo zhǎng shì yìng shāng

HP's financial report fell nearly 7% after hours, and the high price of memory is a hard wound

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

大立光去年合计每股配息80元 元月营收季仍亮眼

dà lì guāng qù nián gě jì měi gǔ pèi xī 8 0 yuán yuán yuè yíng shōu dàn jì réng liàng yǎn

Largan paid a total dividend of 80 yuan per share last year, and the off-season of January revenue was still eye-catching

東方日報Feb 2026

强词有理:中国最

qiáng cí yǒu lǐ : zhōng guó zuì dàn dìng

The strong words are reasonable: China is the calmest

百度新闻Feb 2026

(新春走基层)海外订单催热“季”生产线 广州南沙..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng hǎi wài dìng shàn cuī rè dàn jì shēng chǎn xiàn guǎng zhōu nán shā . .

(Chinese New Year) Overseas Orders Heat Up "Off-Season" Production Lines Guangzhou Nansha...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...祛斑用什么护肤品好?美白最有效的产品榜:斑祛..

. . . 祛 bān yòng shén má hù fū pǐn hǎo ? měi bái zuì yǒu xiào de chǎn pǐn bǎng dàn bān 祛 . .

... What are the best skin care products to get rid of spots? Whitening the most effective products list: light spots to dispel ...

Tatoeba

你有任何啤酒吗?

Nǐ yǒu rènhé dànpí jiǔ ma?

Do you have any light beer?

Tatoeba

我肯定这是水鱼。

Wǒ kěndìng zhè shì dànshuǐyú.

I'm sure that this is a fresh water fish.

Tatoeba

鲑鱼在水中产卵。

Guīyú zài dànshuǐ zhōng chǎnluǎn.

Salmon lay their eggs in fresh water.

Tatoeba

台湾菜比印度菜口味

Táiwān cài bǐ Yìndù cài kǒuwèi dàn.

Taiwanese food is milder than Indian food.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 淡 (dàn) mean in Chinese?
淡 (dàn) primarily means "insipid." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1285 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 淡 and 刚?
淡 (dàn) and 刚 (gāng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 淡 (weak) vs 刚 (strong).
How many strokes does 淡 have?
淡 is written with 11 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 淡?
The radical associated with 淡 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 淡?
淡 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 炎 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵炎 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 淡?
Common words with 淡 include: 扯淡 (chě dàn, "to talk nonsense"); 冷淡 (lěng dàn, "cold"); 平淡 (píng dàn, "flat"); 淡忘 (dàn wàng, "to gradually forget as time passes"); 淡水 (dàn shuǐ, "potable water (water with low salt content)"). There are over 62 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 淡 (dàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dàn: 丹 (red), 担 (to carry, to undertake), 耽 (to delay), 胆 (gallbladder, courage), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 淡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 淡 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.