端 (duān): (bound form) tip, end, extremity, (bound form) aspect, facet, (bound form) upright, proper

端 (duān) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) tip.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 立 (semantic) and 耑 (phonetic). It ranks #916 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 端 stand. Its radical form 立 (stand) appears in many related characters such as 站 (zhàn, station), 立 (lì, to stand), 童 (tóng, child).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) tip
  2. end
  3. extremity
  4. (bound form) aspect
  5. facet
  6. (bound form) upright
  7. proper

Etymology & Origin

端

pictophoneticstand

Decomposition: ⿰立耑 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 端

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
极端noun/adverb/adjectivejí duānextreme6
高端adjective/noungāo duānhigh-end6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
开端nounkāi duānstart
顶端noundǐng duānsummit
争端nounzhēng duāndispute
终端nounzhōng duānend
末端nounmò duāntip
尖端nounjiān duānsharp pointed end
无端adjectivewú duānfor no reason at all
端庄adjectiveduān zhuāngdignified
异端nounyì duānheresy
事端nounshì duāndisturbance
端正adjectiveduān zhèngupright
诡计多端phraseguǐ jì duō duāndeceitful in many ways (idiom)
端倪nounduān níboundary
前端nounqián duānfront
两端nounliǎng duānboth ends (of a stick etc)
100
Total compounds
37
As first character
48
As last character
15
As middle character

端 appears in 100 compound words: 37 as the first character, 48 as the last, and 15 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 端 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

俭jiǎn
0.6577,716 co-occurrences
尖jiān
0.55510,196 co-occurrences
末mò
0.51815,712 co-occurrences
宽kuān
0.5128,026 co-occurrences
勤qín
0.5107,830 co-occurrences
孝xiào
0.4998,254 co-occurrences
弊bì
0.4952,230 co-occurrences
极jí
0.48613,335 co-occurrences
户hù
0.4828,938 co-occurrences
智zhì
0.4498,248 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

百端待举bǎiduān dàijǔHSK 6+

much remains to be done; numerous tasks remain to be undertaken

phrase
变化多端biànhuàduōduānHSK 6+

varied; changeable; capable of being changed in a variety of ways

phrase
川端康成chuān duān kāng chéngHSK 7+

Kawabata Yasunari, Japanese literature Nobel laureate

phrase
诡计多端guǐjìduōduānHSK 7+

to have many crafty plots

phrase
鬼计多端guǐ jì duō duānHSK 7+

variant of 詭計多端|诡计多端

phrase
极端分子jíduān fènzǐHSK 6+

extremist

noun
首鼠两端shǒushǔliǎngduānHSK 6+

to be hesitant or indecisive

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

端字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

duān zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "端" has different usages in different contexts.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

民调前夕 江启臣固桩本命区 杨琼璎端政绩

mín diào qián xī jiāng qǐ chén gù zhuāng běn mìng qū yáng 琼 璎 duān zhèng jì

On the eve of the polls, Jiang Qichen solidified the pile of the natal district Yang Qiongying's political achievements

Investing 香港Feb 2026

...伦比亚对厄瓜多商品征收30%关税 贸易争端升级

. . . lún bǐ yà duì è guā duō shāng pǐn zhēng shōu 3 0 guān shuì mào yì zhēng duān shēng jí

... Colombia imposes a 30% tariff on Ecuadorian goods Trade dispute escalates

InvestingFeb 2026

刘强东官宣“第二事业”,投资50亿进军高端游艇,“已接到订单,均价约6000万欧元...

liú qiáng dōng guān xuān dì èr shì yè , tóu zī 5 0 yì jìn jūn gāo duān yóu tǐng , yǐ jiē dào dìng dān , jūn jià yuē 6 0 0 0 wàn ōu yuán . . .

Liu Qiangdong officially announced his "second career" and invested 5 billion yuan to enter high-end yachts, "has received orders, with an average price of about 60 million euros...

InvestingFeb 2026

...025年第四季度业绩:CAFD达到指引高端,预计增长19%

. . . 0 2 5 nián dì sì jì dù yè jì : C A F D dá dào zhǐ yǐn gāo duān , yù jì zēng cháng 1 9

... Q4 2025 results: CAFD at the high end of guidance, expected to grow by 19%

Tatoeba

在这个城市,白人和黑人间的争端愈演愈烈。

Zài zhège chéngshì, báirén hé hēirén jiān de zhēngduān yù yǎn yù liè.

The conflict between blacks and whites in the city became worse.

Tatoeba

青年人总爱挑战极端。

Qīngniánrén zǒng ài tiǎozhàn jíduān.

Young people are apt to go to extremes.

Tatoeba

关于教育,他持极端意见。

Guānyú jiàoyù, tā chí jíduān yìjiàn.

He holds an extreme opinion on education.

Tatoeba

你的建议有点极端。

Nǐ de jiànyì yǒudiǎn jíduān.

Your proposal is a bit extreme.

Tatoeba

横街的那端有一个幼儿园。

Héngjiē de nà duān yǒu yī gè yòu'éryuán.

There is a kindergarten at the other end of the street.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 立 (stand) component

立 Radical Family — Characters sharing the stand radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced duān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 端 (duān) mean in Chinese?
端 (duān) primarily means "(bound form) tip." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #916 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 端 and 始?
端 (duān) and 始 (shǐ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 端 (end) vs 始 (begin).
How many strokes does 端 have?
端 is written with 14 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 端?
The radical associated with 端 is 立 (stand). This radical appears in many characters related to stand.
What are the components of 端?
端 is composed of: 立 (semantic), 耑 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰立耑 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 端?
Common words with 端 include: 极端 (jí duān, "extreme"); 开端 (kāi duān, "start"); 顶端 (dǐng duān, "summit"); 争端 (zhēng duān, "dispute"); 终端 (zhōng duān, "end"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 端 (duān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation duān: 断 (to break), 段 (paragraph), 短 (short), 锻 (to forge). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 端 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 端 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 端 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.