凡 (fán): ordinary, commonplace, mundane

凡 (fán) is a Chinese character meaning “ordinary.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 几 (structural) and 丶 (structural). It ranks #1012 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 凡 a plate or flat dish; an everyday item. Its radical form 几 (table) appears in many related characters such as 几 (jǐ, how many), 凭 (píng, to lean against), 凤 (fèng, phoenix).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ordinary
  2. commonplace
  3. mundane

Etymology & Origin

凡

ideographicA plate or flat dish; an everyday item

Decomposition: ⿵几丶 (layout: surround-from-top)

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 凡

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
平凡adjectivepíng fáncommonplace6
凡是adverbfán shìeach and every6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
非凡adjectivefēi fánout of the ordinary
凡人nounfán rénordinary person
凡事adverbfán shìeverything
伊凡proper-nounyī fánIvan (Russian name)
超凡verbchāo fánout of the ordinary
自命不凡phrasezì mìng bù fánto think too much of oneself
不凡adjectivebù fánextraordinary
不同凡响phrasebù tóng fán xiǎnglit. not a common chord (idiom)
下凡verbxià fán(of immortals) to descend to the human world
凡尔赛proper-nounfán ěr sàiVersailles (near Paris)
凡士林nounfán shì lín(loanword) vaseline
凡响nounfán xiǎngordinary tones
凡间nounfán jiānthe secular world
凡夫俗子phrasefán fū sú zǐcommon people
但凡conjunctiondàn fánevery single
47
Total compounds
51
As first character
23
As last character
26
As middle character

凡 appears in 47 compound words: 51 as the first character, 23 as the last, and 26 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 凡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

伊yī
0.4346,164 co-occurrences
非fēi
0.4168,617 co-occurrences
平píng
0.40211,482 co-occurrences
玫méi
0.371338 co-occurrences
吴wú
0.341688 co-occurrences
尔ěr
0.3414,110 co-occurrences
超chāo
0.3402,200 co-occurrences
纳nà
0.3401,384 co-occurrences
斯sī
0.3376,908 co-occurrences
黎lí
0.337876 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

不同凡响bùtóngfánxiǎngHSK 6+

outstanding; out of the ordinary; out of the common run (usually of literary and artistic works)

phrase
不知凡几bùzhīfánjǐHSK 6+

many; a lot

phrase
凡尔赛宫Fán'ěrsài GōngHSK 6+

Palace of Versailles

凡夫俗子fánfūsúzǐHSK 6+

ordinary person

phrase
肉眼凡胎ròu yǎn fán tāiHSK 7+

ignoramus (idiom)

phrase
诸凡百事zhū fán bǎi shìHSK 6+

everything

phrase
自命不凡zìmìngbùfánHSK 6+

to think no end of oneself; to think too much of oneself; to be self-important

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

凡字由3笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

fán zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "凡" consists of three strokes, with a remarkably ingenious structure.

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

非凡领越(00933.HK):Clarks拟...

fēi fán lǐng yuè ( 0 0 9 3 3 . H K ) : C l a r k s nǐ . . .

Extraordinary Leadership (00933.HK): Clarks intends...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

影/苗栗𪹚龙嘉年华踩街、晚会热闹非凡 各式龙队现身争奇斗艳

yǐng miáo 栗 lóng jiā nián huá cǎi jiē , wǎn huì rè nào fēi fán gè shì lóng duì xiàn shēn zhēng qí dǒu yàn

Shadow/Miaoli Dragon Carnival stepped on the streets, and the party was very lively, and all kinds of dragon teams appeared to compete for beauty

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

法国凡尔赛宫主席勒里博出任卢浮宫博物馆馆长

fǎ guó fán ěr sài gōng zhǔ xí lè lǐ bó chū rèn 卢 fú gōng bó wù guǎn guǎn cháng

Leribault, chairman of the Palace of Versailles in France, became the director of the Louvre Museum

Hk01.comFeb 2026

法国政府任命罗浮宫新馆长 由凡尔赛宫馆长勒里博接任

fǎ guó zhèng fǔ rèn mìng luó fú gōng xīn guǎn cháng yóu fán ěr sài gōng guǎn cháng lè lǐ bó jiē rèn

The French government appointed a new director of the Louvre to be replaced by the director of the Palace of Versailles, Le Ribeau

RfiFeb 2026

罗浮宫新馆长由凡尔赛宫馆长出任

luó fú gōng xīn guǎn cháng yóu fán ěr sài gōng guǎn cháng chū rèn

The new director of the Louvre is the director of the Palace of Versailles

Tatoeba

他为《阿凡达》配了音。

Tā wèi 《 āfándá 》 pèi le yīn.

He has dubbed in "Avatar".

Tatoeba

凡能将他遗失的钱寻回者可得到酬金。

Fán néng jiāng tā yíshī de qián xún huí zhě kědédào chóujīn.

Anyone who can recover the money he lost will receive a reward.

Tatoeba

凡事都要尽力而为。

Fánshì dōu yào jìnlì'érwéi.

In doing anything, you must do your best.

Tatoeba

凡美的事物就是永恒的喜悦。

Fán Měidí shìwù jiùshì yǒnghéng de xǐyuè.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

Character Family

几 Radical Family — Characters sharing the table radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced fán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 凡 (fán) mean in Chinese?
凡 (fán) primarily means "ordinary." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1012 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 凡 have?
凡 is written with 3 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 凡?
The radical associated with 凡 is 几 (table). This radical appears in many characters related to table.
What are the components of 凡?
凡 is composed of: 几 (structural), 丶 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵几丶 with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 凡?
Common words with 凡 include: 非凡 (fēi fán, "out of the ordinary"); 平凡 (píng fán, "commonplace"); 凡人 (fán rén, "ordinary person"); 凡事 (fán shì, "everything"); 伊凡 (yī fán, "Ivan (Russian name)"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 凡 (fán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fán: 反 (contrary), 犯 (to violate), 范 (pattern), 饭 (meal, rice), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 凡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 凡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 凡 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.