奠 (diàn): to fix, to settle, a libation to the dead

奠 (diàn) is a Chinese character meaning “to fix.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 酋 (structural) and 大 (structural). It ranks #2529 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 奠 a man 大 lifting up an offering of wine 酋. Its radical form 大 (big) appears in many related characters such as 大 (dà, big), 天 (tiān, day), 太 (tài, highest).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 大 big12 strokesFrequency #2529酋 structural大 structural

Definitions

  1. to fix
  2. to settle
  3. a libation to the dead

Etymology & Origin

奠

ideographicA man 大 lifting up an offering of wine 酋

Decomposition: ⿱酋大 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:酋structural大structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
祭奠verbjì diànto offer sacrifices (to one's ancestors)
奠基verbdiàn jīto lay a foundation
奠定verbdiàn dìngto establish
奠基人noundiàn jī rénfounder
奠基石diàn jī shífoundation stone
奠基者diàn jī zhěfounder
奠都verbdiàn dūto determine the position of the capital
奠济宫diàn jì gōngDianji Temple in Keelung, Taiwan
奠酒verbdiàn jiǔa libation
奠仪noundiàn yía gift of money to the family of the deceased
奠祭verbdiàn jìpouring of wine on ground for sacrifice
11
Total compounds
91
As first character
9
As last character
0
As middle character

奠 appears in 11 compound words: 91 as the first character, 9 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 奠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

基jī
0.52717,931 co-occurrences
定dìng
0.47414,749 co-occurrences
础chǔ
0.472694 co-occurrences
祭jì
0.4591,549 co-occurrences
仪yí
0.455926 co-occurrences
了le
0.4149,262 co-occurrences
怡yí
0.363202 co-occurrences
坚jiān
0.353228 co-occurrences
礼lǐ
0.350352 co-occurrences
式shì
0.3231,668 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个奠字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě diàn zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "奠" carries different meanings in classical Chinese.

BastillepostMar 2026

...FC 2:1击败哥伦布机员 辛曼83分钟奠胜

. . . F C 2 : 1 jī bài gē lún bù jī yuán xīn 曼 8 3 fēn zhōng diàn shèng

...FC defeated the Columbus Crew 2–1; Xin Man scored the winning goal in the 83rd minute

BusinesswireMar 2026

...2亿美元债务,为公司的长期财务稳定和成长奠定基础

. . . 2 yì měi yuán zhài wù , wéi gōng sī de cháng qī cái wù wěn dìng hé chéng cháng diàn dìng jī chǔ

...$200 million in debt, laying the foundation for the company's long-term financial stability and growth

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

加韩签署防务协议 奠定军事机密共享法律基础

jiā hán qiān shǔ fáng wù xié yì diàn dìng jūn shì jī mì gòng xiǎng fǎ lǜ jī chǔ

Canada and South Korea signed a defense agreement to lay the legal foundation for the sharing of military secrets

StheadlineFeb 2026

欧联|云尼斯奥斯奠胜 皇家马德里2:1挫宾菲加晋16强

ōu lián yún ní sī ào sī diàn shèng huáng jiā mǎ dé lǐ 2 : 1 cuò bīn 菲 jiā jìn 1 6 qiáng

Europa League | Winnis Osdian won Real Madrid 2-1 to defeat Benfica to advance to the round of 16

Character Family

大 Radical Family — Characters sharing the big radical

大dà天tiān头tóu太tài失shī夫fū奇qí套tào奖jiǎng奋fèn

Related Characters

大dà天tiān太tài头tóu套tào夫fū失shī奇qí奋fèn奖jiǎng

Homophones — Characters pronounced diàn

点diǎn电diàn店diàn典diǎn颠diān垫diàn甸diàn惦diàn巅diān淀diàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 奠 (diàn) mean in Chinese?
奠 (diàn) primarily means "to fix." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2529 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 奠 and 在?
奠 (diàn) and 在 (zài) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 奠 (dead) vs 在 (alive).
How many strokes does 奠 have?
奠 is written with 12 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 奠?
The radical associated with 奠 is 大 (big). This radical appears in many characters related to big.
What are the components of 奠?
奠 is composed of: 酋 (structural), 大 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱酋大 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 奠?
Common words with 奠 include: 祭奠 (jì diàn, "to offer sacrifices (to one's ancestors)"); 奠基 (diàn jī, "to lay a foundation"); 奠定 (diàn dìng, "to establish"); 奠基人 (diàn jī rén, "founder"); 奠基石 (diàn jī shí, "foundation stone"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 奠 (diàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation diàn: 点 (point, o'clock), 电 (lightning), 店 (shop), 典 (canon), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 奠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 奠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.