丁 (dīng): male adult, the 4th of the 10 Heavenly Stems 天干, fourth (used like "4" or "D")

丁 (dīng) is a Chinese character meaning “male adult.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 一 (one). It ranks #1166 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 丁 a nail. Its radical form 一 (one) appears in many related characters such as 一 (yī, one), 七 (qī, seven), 三 (sān, three).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 一 one2 strokesFrequency #1166

Definitions

  1. male adult
  2. the 4th of the 10 Heavenly Stems 天干
  3. fourth (used like "4" or "D")

Etymology & Origin

丁

pictographicA nail

Stroke Order

1
2

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
马丁proper-nounmǎ dīngMartin (name)
拉丁proper-nounlā dīngLatin
布丁nounbù dīngpudding (loanword)
园丁nounyuán dīnggardener
拉丁语nounlā dīng yǔLatin (language)
拉丁文nounlā dīng wénLatin (language)
拉丁美洲proper-nounlā dīng měi zhōuLatin America
拉丁舞nounlā dīng wǔLatin dance
奥斯丁proper-nounào sī dīngAustin or Austen (name)
爱丁堡proper-nounài dīng bǎoEdinburgh, capital of Scotland
尼古丁nounní gǔ dīng(loanword) nicotine
诺丁汉proper-nounnuò dīng hànNottingham (city in England)
沙丁鱼nounshā dīng yúsardine (loanword)
补丁bǔ dingpatch (for mending clothes, tires etc)
丁香noundīng xiānglilac (Syringa spp)
101
Total compounds
43
As first character
39
As last character
19
As middle character

丁 appears in 101 compound words: 43 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 19 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 丁 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

丑chǒu
0.57210,816 co-occurrences
忧yōu
0.5193,256 co-occurrences
目mù
0.51759,208 co-occurrences
坦tǎn
0.50615,160 co-occurrences
君jūn
0.48612,026 co-occurrences
拉lā
0.48156,438 co-occurrences
裔yì
0.4776,704 co-occurrences
番fān
0.4736,736 co-occurrences
堡bǎo
0.46312,415 co-occurrences
艰jiān
0.4451,008 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

不识一丁bù shí yī dīngHSK 7+

total illiterate; unable to read the simplest characters

phrase
不知丁董bù zhī dīng dǒngHSK 7+

forgetting the fate of Ding and Dong (idiom); unheeding the lessons of the past

phrase
宫保鸡丁Gōngbǎo jīdīngHSK 7+

Kung Pao chicken

noun
宫爆鸡丁Gōngbào jīdīngHSK 7+

alternative form of 宮保雞丁 /宫保鸡丁 (Gōngbǎo jīdīng)

noun
孤苦零丁gū kǔ líng dīngHSK 7+

variant of 孤苦伶仃

phrase
氯丁橡胶lǜ dīng xiàng jiāo

neoprene

phrase
目不识丁mùbùshídīngHSK 7+

to not even know the most basic characters; to be densely illiterate

phrase
人丁兴旺rén dīng xīng wàngHSK 7+

(idiom) to be a flourishing family with many descendants

phrase
紫花地丁zǐhuādìdīngHSK 7+

viola (Viola philippica) (a herb used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat snake bite.)

noun

Showing 9 of 10 idioms containing 丁.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

丁字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

dīng zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The T-shaped object is not frequently used in daily life.

美通社Feb 2026

...ogicals 达成授权协议,致力扩大拉丁美洲生物相似药的可及途径

. . . o g i c a l s dá chéng shòu quán xié yì , zhì lì kuò dà lā dīng měi zhōu shēng wù xiāng sì yào de kě jí tú jìng

... Ogicals has entered into a licensing agreement to expand access to biosimilars in Latin America

Investing 香港Feb 2026

五角大厦向波音和洛克希德马丁询问对Anthropic的依赖程度——A...

wǔ jiǎo dà xià xiàng bō yīn hé 洛 kè xī dé mǎ dīng xún wèn duì A n t h r o p i c de yī lài chéng dù — — A . . .

The Pentagon asked Boeing and Lockheed Martin how much they depended on Anthropic - A...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

丁予嘉/全球金融“大事”要来了!

dīng yú jiā quán qiú jīn róng dà shì yāo lái le !

Ding Yujia/Global financial "big events" are coming!

It之家Feb 2026

...度利润低于预期且需求疲软,阿斯顿 · 马丁宣布将再裁员 20%

. . . dù lì rùn dī yú yù qī qiě xū qiú pí ruǎn , ā sī dùn mǎ dīng xuān bù jiāng zài cái yuán 2 0

... Lower than expected profits and weak demand, Aston · Martin announced another 20% layoffs

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

邓国平:国盟权力重排,慕尤丁“退而不休”,哈迪“退而不离”?

dèng guó píng : guó méng quán lì chóng pái , mù yóu dīng tuì ér bù xiū , hā dí tuì ér bù lí ?

Deng Guoping: The BN power rearrangement, Muhyiddin "retreats", Hadi "retreats"?

Tatoeba

普丁领导下的俄罗斯并不惧怕美国和北约。

Pǔdīng lǐngdǎo xià de éluósī bìngbù jùpà Měiguó hé Běiyuē.

Putin's Russia isn't afraid of the United States and NATO.

Tatoeba

你刚刚吃了四十份布丁吗?

Nǐ gānggang chī le sì shí fèn bùdīng ma?

Did you just eat forty servings of pudding?

Tatoeba

你也会讲拉丁语吗?

Nǐ yě huì jiǎng Lādīngyǔ ma?

Do you speak Latin also?

Tatoeba

快点,马丁。我们已经迟到了!

Kuàidiǎn, Mǎdīng. wǒmen yǐjīng chídào le!

Hurry up, Martin. We're already late!

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dīng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 丁 (dīng) mean in Chinese?
丁 (dīng) primarily means "male adult." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1166 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 丁 and 母?
丁 (dīng) and 母 (mǔ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 丁 (male) vs 母 (female).
How many strokes does 丁 have?
丁 is written with 2 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 丁?
The radical associated with 丁 is 一 (one). This radical appears in many characters related to one.
What are common words containing 丁?
Common words with 丁 include: 马丁 (mǎ dīng, "Martin (name)"); 拉丁 (lā dīng, "Latin"); 布丁 (bù dīng, "pudding (loanword)"); 园丁 (yuán dīng, "gardener"); 拉丁语 (lā dīng yǔ, "Latin (language)"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 丁 (dīng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dīng: 定 (to decide, fixed), 顶 (apex), 订 (to agree), 盯 (to stare at), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 丁 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 丁 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 丁 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.