宕 (dàng): dissipated, put off, used in 宕昌 (the name of a place in Gansu)

宕 (dàng) is a Chinese character meaning “dissipated.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 宀 (structural) and 石 (structural). It ranks #3861 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 宕 a tunnel 宀 made in stone 石. Its radical form 宀 (roof) appears in many related characters such as 家 (jiā, home, family), 室 (shì, room), 客 (kè, guest, customer).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. dissipated
  2. put off
  3. used in 宕昌 (the name of a place in Gansu)

Etymology & Origin

宕

ideographicA tunnel 宀 made in stone 石

Decomposition: ⿱宀石 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
流宕忘反liú dàng wàng fǎnto stray and forget to return
宕机verbdàng jī(of a computer, server etc) to crash
推宕verbtuī dàngto postpone
延宕verbyán dàngto postpone
偏宕piān dàngextremely (stubborn, contrary, disobedient etc)
拖宕verbtuō dàngto delay
宕昌县tàn chāng xiànTanchang, a county in Longnan City 隴南市|陇南市, Gansu
跌宕adjectivediē dànguninhibited
跌宕昭彰diē dàng zhāo zhāngflowing (of prose)
宕昌proper-nountàn chāngsee 宕昌縣|宕昌县
逸宕yì dàngdissolute
11
Total compounds
27
As first character
55
As last character
18
As middle character

宕 appears in 11 compound words: 27 as the first character, 55 as the last, and 18 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

跌宕昭彰diē dàng zhāo zhāng

flowing (of prose); free

phrase
流宕忘反liú dàng wàng fǎn

to stray and forget to return

phrase

Example Sentences

少数派Sep 2026

放弃风平浪静的世俗幸福,主动踏上跌宕起伏之路的富士子,又何尝不是摇滚精神的写照。

fàng qì fēng píng làng jìng de shì sú xìng fú , zhǔ dòng tà shàng diē dàng qǐ fú zhī lù de fù shì zǐ , yòu hé cháng bù shì yáo gǔn jīng shén de xiě zhào .

Fujiko, who gave up a peaceful, mundane happiness to willingly embark on a tumultuous journey, is nothing less than the embodiment of the rock-and-roll spirit.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

日渐平静的中年,故事还能继续跌宕吗?

rì jiàn píng jìng de zhōng nián , gù shì hái néng jì xù diē dàng ma ?

As middle age grows increasingly calm, can the story still remain full of twists and turns?

中国新闻网·体育Aug 2026

跌宕的比赛过程,让年轻球员获得了日常训练难以替代的临场体验。

diē dàng de bǐ sài guò chéng , ràng nián qīng qiú yuán huò dé le rì cháng xùn liàn nán yǐ tì dài de lín chǎng tǐ yàn .

The dramatic course of the game gave the young players on-the-field experience that regular training simply cannot replace.

奇客SolidotAug 2026

安娜的档案在长时间宕机之后恢复服务

ān nà de dàng àn zài cháng shí jiān dàng jī zhī hòu huī fù fú wù

Anna's profile is back online after a prolonged outage

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

麦家认为,《青枝》最大的魅力在于,故事没有跌宕起伏的情节,却耐人寻味。

mài jiā rèn wéi , qīng zhī zuì dà de mèi lì zài yú , gù shì méi yǒu diē dàng qǐ fú de qíng jié , què nài rén xún wèi .

Mai Jia believes that the greatest appeal of *Green Branches* lies in the fact that, although the story lacks dramatic twists and turns, it is thought-provoking.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 宕 (dàng) mean in Chinese?
宕 (dàng) primarily means "dissipated." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3861 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 宕 have?
宕 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 宕?
The radical associated with 宕 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 宕?
宕 is composed of: 宀 (structural), 石 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀石 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 宕?
Common words with 宕 include: 流宕忘反 (liú dàng wàng fǎn, "to stray and forget to return"); 宕机 (dàng jī, "(of a computer, server etc) to crash"); 推宕 (tuī dàng, "to postpone"); 延宕 (yán dàng, "to postpone"); 偏宕 (piān dàng, "extremely (stubborn, contrary, disobedient etc)"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
Is 宕 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 宕 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 宕 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.