癫 (diān): mentally deranged, crazy

癫 (diān) is a Chinese character meaning “mentally deranged.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 疒 (semantic) and 颠 (phonetic). It ranks #2488 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 癫 sickness. Its radical form 疒 (illness) appears in many related characters such as 病 (bìng, illness), 痛 (tòng, pain), 医 (yī, medicine).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. mentally deranged
  2. crazy

Etymology & Origin

癫

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒颠 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
癫痫diān xiánepilepsy
疯疯癫癫adjectivefēng feng diān diānderanged
疯癫verbfēng diāninsane
癫狂adjectivediān kuángderanged
子癫前症zǐ diān qián zhèngpre-eclampsia, toxaemia of pregnancy (medicine)
发癫verbfā diānto go crazy
癫痫发作diān xián fā zuòepileptic seizure
羊癫疯yáng diān fēngepilepsy
8
Total compounds
38
As first character
25
As last character
38
As middle character

癫 appears in 8 compound words: 38 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 38 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

疯疯癫癫fēngfengdiāndiān

mad; crazy; deranged

adjective

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

在视频里“发癫”的还有戏曲。

zài shì pín lǐ fā diān de hái yǒu xì qū .

Traditional Chinese opera also goes “wild” in the video.

爱范儿Aug 2026

对于有光敏性癫痫病史,或者对高频闪烁较为敏感的观众,建议谨慎观看。

duì yú yǒu guāng mǐn xìng diān 痫 bìng shǐ , huò zhě duì gāo pín shǎn shuò jiào wéi mǐn gǎn de guān zhòng , jiàn yì jǐn shèn guān kàn .

Viewers with a history of photosensitive epilepsy or who are sensitive to high-frequency flashing lights are advised to exercise caution when watching.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

周星驰将充满喜感的“癫疯”对决,以熟悉的喜剧表达带到大家面前。

zhōu xīng chí jiāng chōng mǎn xǐ gǎn de diān fēng duì jué , yǐ shú xī de xǐ jù biǎo dá dài dào dà jiā miàn qián .

Stephen Chow brings this hilarious "crazy" showdown to the audience through his signature comedic style.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

而演员尹昉呈现的墨菲斯特优雅又癫狂,天生具有诱惑人心的资本。

ér yǎn yuán yǐn 昉 chéng xiàn de mò fēi sī tè yōu yǎ yòu diān kuáng , tiān shēng jù yǒu yòu huò rén xīn de zī běn .

Actor Yin Fang’s portrayal of Mephistopheles is both elegant and unhinged, endowed with an innate ability to seduce others.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 疒 (sickness) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 癫 (diān) mean in Chinese?
癫 (diān) primarily means "mentally deranged." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2488 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 癫 have?
癫 is written with 21 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 癫?
The radical associated with 癫 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 癫?
癫 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 颠 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒颠 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 癫?
Common words with 癫 include: 癫痫 (diān xián, "epilepsy"); 疯疯癫癫 (fēng feng diān diān, "deranged"); 疯癫 (fēng diān, "insane"); 癫狂 (diān kuáng, "deranged"); 子癫前症 (zǐ diān qián zhèng, "pre-eclampsia, toxaemia of pregnancy (medicine)"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
Is 癫 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 癫 and the traditional form is 癲.

Practice writing 癫 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.