诞 (dàn): birth, birthday, brag

诞 (dàn) is a Chinese character meaning “birth.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 讠 (semantic) and 延 (phonetic). It ranks #1970 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 诞 speech. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 认 (rèn, to recognize, to admit), 记 (jì, to remember, to record), 识 (shí, to know, knowledge).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 6Radical: 讠 speech8 strokesFrequency #1970讠 semantic延 phonetic

Definitions

  1. birth
  2. birthday
  3. brag

Etymology & Origin

诞

pictophoneticspeech

Decomposition: ⿰讠延 (layout: left-right)

Components:讠semantic延phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 诞

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
诞生verbdàn shēngto be born6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
圣诞nounshèng dànChristmas
圣诞节proper-nounshèng dàn jiéChristmas time
圣诞老人proper-nounshèng dàn lǎo rénFather Christmas
圣诞树nounshèng dàn shùChristmas tree
荒诞adjectivehuāng dànbeyond belief
怪诞adjectiveguài dànfreak
圣诞卡nounshèng dàn kǎChristmas card
荒诞不经phrasehuāng dàn bù jīngabsurd
诞辰noundàn chénbirthday
怪诞不经guài dàn bù jīnguncanny
圣诞快乐phraseshèng dàn kuài lèMerry Christmas
佛诞日proper-nounfó dàn rìBuddha's Birthday (8th day of the 4th Lunar month)
毛诞节máo dàn jiéMao Zedong’s birthday, December 26th
放诞不羁phrasefàng dàn bù jīwanton and unrestrained (idiom)
耶诞节proper-nounyē dàn jié(Tw) Christmas
31
Total compounds
10
As first character
29
As last character
61
As middle character

诞 appears in 31 compound words: 10 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 61 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 诞 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

圣shèng
0.6558,036 co-occurrences
辰chén
0.5753,651 co-occurrences
生shēng
0.48715,648 co-occurrences
荒huāng
0.4821,056 co-occurrences
节jié
0.4593,010 co-occurrences
树shù
0.416628 co-occurrences
胞bāo
0.40110 co-occurrences
颂sòng
0.399118 co-occurrences
婆pó
0.39410 co-occurrences
怪guài
0.375456 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

怪诞不经guài dàn bù jīngHSK 6+

uncanny; unbelievable; ridiculous

phrase
荒诞不经huāngdànbùjīngHSK 7+

ridiculous; absurd; illogical; nonsensical

phrase
荒诞无稽huāng dàn wú jīHSK 7+

ridiculous; unbelievable; absurd

phrase
圣诞快乐Shèngdàn kuàilèHSK 7+

Merry Christmas

phrase
圣诞老人Shèngdàn LǎorénHSK 7+

Santa Claus

放诞不羁fàngdànbùjīHSK 6+

wanton and unrestrained; dissolute

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请诞细阅读合同条款，再签字确认。

qǐng dàn xì yuè dòu gě tóng tiáo kuǎn , zài qiān zì què rèn .

Please carefully review the contract terms before signing to confirm.

99 健康网Feb 2026

丈夫准备给诞下5胞胎老婆送黄金!五胞胎妈妈的产后康复...

zhàng fū zhǔn bèi gěi dàn xià 5 bāo tāi lǎo pó sòng huáng jīn ! wǔ bāo tāi mā mā de chǎn hòu kāng fù . . .

The husband is ready to give gold to his wife who gave birth to quintuplets! Postpartum rehabilitation of quintuplets mothers...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

钟丽缇三度出嫁诞三女 16岁细女搭飞机播片被斥唔戴耳机嘈...

zhōng lí 缇 sān dù chū jià dàn sān nǚ 1 6 suì xì nǚ dā fēi jī bō piàn bèi chì 唔 dài ěr jī cáo . . .

Zhong Liti married three times and gave birth to three daughters, and her 16-year-old daughter was reprimanded for not wearing headphones to broadcast videos...

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

阿罗街第18届助庆天公诞祈福大典 爆竹震天烟花绽放 近万人齐聚祈...

ā luó jiē dì 1 8 jiè zhù qìng tiān gōng dàn qí fú dà diǎn bào zhú zhèn tiān yān huā zhàn fàng jìn wàn rén qí jù qí . . .

The 18th Celebration of Tiangong's Birthday Blessing Ceremony on Alor Street Firecrackers and fireworks bloomed Nearly 10,000 people gathered to pray...

EttodayFeb 2026

三宝妈圣诞采买后离家未归!24年后现身 子女心情五...

sān bǎo mā shèng dàn cǎi mǎi hòu lí jiā wèi guī ! 2 4 nián hòu xiàn shēn zǐ nǚ xīn qíng wǔ . . .

Sanbao's mother left home after Christmas shopping and did not return! Appeared after 24 years and the children's mood five...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

广东流行歌诞生前我们听甚么?中大教授翻查史料还原时代...

guǎng dōng liú háng gē dàn shēng qián wǒ men tīng shèn má ? zhōng dà jiào shòu fān chá shǐ liào hái yuán shí dài . . .

What did we listen to before the birth of Cantonese pop songs? CUHK professor checks historical materials to restore the era...

Tatoeba

你圣诞过得开心吗？

Nǐ Shèngdàn guòdé kāixīn ma?

Did you have a nice Christmas?

Tatoeba

你去年写了多少张圣诞卡？

Nǐ qùnián xiě le duōshao zhāng Shèngdànkǎ?

How many Christmas cards did you write last year?

Tatoeba

你圣诞节要什么，珍妮？

Nǐ Shèngdànjié yào shénme, zhēn nī?

What do you want for Christmas, Jenny?

Tatoeba

想要什么样的圣诞节礼物呢？

Xiǎngyào shénmeyàng de Shèngdànjié lǐwù ne?

What do you want for Christmas?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 讠 (speech) component

说shuō认rèn许xǔ计jì该gāi让ràng识shí请qǐng设shè议yì

Related Characters

认rèn记jì识shí诉sù试shì话huà语yǔ说shuō请qǐng读dú

Homophones — Characters pronounced dàn

蛋dàn但dàn担dān弹dàn旦dàn胆dǎn丹dān淡dàn耽dān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 诞 (dàn) mean in Chinese?
诞 (dàn) primarily means "birth." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1970 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 诞 and 崩?
诞 (dàn) and 崩 (bēng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 诞 (birth) vs 崩 (death).
How many strokes does 诞 have?
诞 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 诞?
The radical associated with 诞 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are the components of 诞?
诞 is composed of: 讠 (semantic), 延 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰讠延 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 诞?
Common words with 诞 include: 圣诞 (shèng dàn, "Christmas"); 圣诞节 (shèng dàn jié, "Christmas time"); 圣诞老人 (shèng dàn lǎo rén, "Father Christmas"); 诞生 (dàn shēng, "to be born"); 圣诞树 (shèng dàn shù, "Christmas tree"). There are over 31 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 诞 (dàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dàn: 蛋 (egg), 但 (but), 担 (to carry, to undertake), 弹 (crossball), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 诞 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 诞 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 诞 with real-time feedback

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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.