颠 (diān): top (of the head), apex, to fall forwards

颠 (diān) is a Chinese character meaning “top (of the head).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 真 (phonetic) and 页 (semantic). It ranks #2093 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 颠 head. Its radical form 页 (page) appears in many related characters such as 页 (yè, page), 顺 (shùn, to obey), 须 (xū, must).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. top (of the head)
  2. apex
  3. to fall forwards

Etymology & Origin

颠

pictophonetichead

Decomposition: ⿰真页 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
颠倒verbdiān dǎoto turn upside down
颠覆verbdiān fùto topple (i.e. knock over)
颠簸verbdiān bǒto be jolted around (car on a bumpy road, boat on a rough sea, aircraft experiencing turbulence)
不列颠proper-nounbù liè diānBritain
大不列颠proper-noundà bù liè diānGreat Britain
颠倒黑白phrasediān dǎo hēi báilit. to invert black and white (idiom)
颠倒是非phrasediān dǎo shì fēi(idiom) to distort right and wrong
颠沛流离phrasediān pèi liú líhomeless and miserable (idiom)
颠来倒去diān lái dǎo qùto harp on
颠扑不破diān pū bù pòsolid
不列颠保卫战bù liè diān bǎo wèi zhànsee 不列顛戰役|不列颠战役
不列颠哥伦比亚proper-nounbù liè diān gē lún bǐ yàBritish Columbia, Pacific province of Canada
不列颠哥伦比亚省bù liè diān gē lún bǐ yà shěngBritish Columbia, Pacific province of Canada
新不列颠岛xīn bù liè diān dǎoNew Britain, island of northeast Papua New Guinea
颠三倒四phrasediān sān dǎo sìconfused
42
Total compounds
60
As first character
5
As last character
36
As middle character

颠 appears in 42 compound words: 60 as the first character, 5 as the last, and 36 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 颠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

簸bǒ
0.675417 co-occurrences
覆fù
0.6423,805 co-occurrences
列liè
0.5266,360 co-occurrences
煽shān
0.522340 co-occurrences
倒dǎo
0.5191,562 co-occurrences
伦lún
0.4871,120 co-occurrences
沛pèi
0.461214 co-occurrences
不bù
0.4486,450 co-occurrences
哥gē
0.4421,122 co-occurrences
岛dǎo
0.410608 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

颠倒黑白diāndǎohēibáiHSK 7+

to confuse right and wrong; to confound right with wrong; to distort the truth; to misrepresent the facts

phrase
颠倒是非diāndǎoshìfēiHSK 7+

to confound right with wrong; to distort the truth

phrase
颠来倒去diān lái dǎo qùHSK 7+

to harp on; over and over; merely ring changes on a few terms

phrase
颠沛流离diānpèiliúlíHSK 7+

to wander about in a desperate plight; to be destitute and homeless

phrase
颠扑不破diān pū bù pòHSK 7+

solid; unbreakable; (fig.) irrefutable; incontrovertible; indisputable

phrase
颠三倒四diānsāndǎosìHSK 7+

disorderly; chaotic; topsy-turvy; confused

phrase
流离颠沛liú lí diān pèiHSK 7+

destitute and homeless (idiom); displaced and without means

phrase
跑跑颠颠pǎo pǎo diān diānHSK 7+

to work hectically; to be on the go; to run around attending to various tasks

phrase
神魂颠倒shénhúndiāndǎoHSK 7+

possessed; obsessed

phrase
颠鸾倒凤diānluándǎofèngHSK 7+

not in order; to make love

phrase

Showing 10 of 12 idioms containing 颠.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们颠字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men diān zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "颠."

Investing 香港Feb 2026

AI颠覆风险还是美股机遇?摩根士丹利发表看法

A I diān fù fēng xiǎn hái shì měi gǔ jī yù ? mó gēn shì dān lì fā biǎo kàn fǎ

AI disruption risk or opportunity for US stocks? Morgan Stanley expressed its opinion

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

高盛:人工智能颠覆避险驱动资金流向重资本企业

gāo shèng : rén gōng zhì néng diān fù bì xiǎn qū dòng zī jīn liú xiàng chóng zī běn qǐ yè

Goldman Sachs: Artificial intelligence disrupts safe-haven and drives capital flows to capital-heavy enterprises

Hypebeast. TwFeb 2026

...ic Can Record Crate:颠覆传统黑胶收纳方式

. . . i c C a n R e c o r d C r a t e : diān fù chuán tǒng hēi jiāo shōu nà fāng shì

... ic Can Record Crate: Subverting the traditional vinyl storage method

TechnewsFeb 2026

深海鱼视网膜发现新“混血”视觉细胞,颠覆 150 年生物学认知

shēn hǎi yú shì wǎng mó fā xiàn xīn hùn xiě shì jué xì bāo , diān fù 1 5 0 nián shēng wù xué rèn zhī

Deep-sea fish retinas discover new "mixed" visual cells that overturn 150-year-old biological cognition

Investing 香港Feb 2026

旅游股因AI颠覆忧虑大幅下挫

lǚ yóu gǔ yīn A I diān fù yōu lǜ dà fú xià cuò

Travel stocks fell sharply due to concerns about AI disruption

Tatoeba

她被他迷得神魂颠倒。

Tā bèi tā mí de shénhúndiāndǎo.

She's completely crazy about him.

Tatoeba

不列颠也是一座岛。

Bùlièdiān yě shì yī zuò dǎo.

Britain is also an island.

Tatoeba

那些想要颠覆这个世界的人们,我们将击败你们。

Nàxiē xiǎngyào diānfù zhège shìjiè de rénmen, wǒmen jiāng jībài nǐmen.

To those who would tear the world down: we will defeat you.

Tatoeba

美利坚合众国于1776年宣布其独立于大不列颠王国。

Měilìjiān Hézhòngguó yú yī qī qī liù nián xuānbù qí dúlì yú Dà Bùlièdiān wángguó.

The US declared independence from Great Britain in 1776.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 页 (head) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced diān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 颠 (diān) mean in Chinese?
颠 (diān) primarily means "top (of the head)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2093 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 颠 and 起?
颠 (diān) and 起 (qǐ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 颠 (fall) vs 起 (rise).
How many strokes does 颠 have?
颠 is written with 16 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 颠?
The radical associated with 颠 is 页 (page). This radical appears in many characters related to page.
What are the components of 颠?
颠 is composed of: 真 (phonetic), 页 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰真页 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 颠?
Common words with 颠 include: 颠倒 (diān dǎo, "to turn upside down"); 颠覆 (diān fù, "to topple (i.e. knock over)"); 颠簸 (diān bǒ, "to be jolted around (car on a bumpy road, boat on a rough sea, aircraft experiencing turbulence)"); 不列颠 (bù liè diān, "Britain"); 大不列颠 (dà bù liè diān, "Great Britain"). There are over 42 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 颠 (diān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation diān: 滇 (Yunnan (province in southwest China)), 点 (point, o'clock), 电 (lightning), 店 (shop), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 颠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 颠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 颠 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.