(fán): ordinary, commonplace, mundane

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

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ordinary
  2. commonplace
  3. mundane

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA plate or flat dish; an everyday item

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

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjectivepíng fáncommonplace6
fán shìeach and every6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fēi fánout of the ordinary
fán rénordinary person
fán shìeverything
yī fánIvan (Russian name)
chāo fánout of the ordinary
zì mìng bù fánto think too much of oneself
bù fánextraordinary
bù tóng fán xiǎnglit. not a common chord (idiom)
xià fán(of immortals) to descend to the human world
fán ěr sàiVersailles (near Paris)
fán shì lín(loanword) vaseline
fán xiǎngordinary tones
fán jiānthe secular world
fán fū sú zǐcommon people
dàn fánevery single
47
Total compounds
51
As first character
23
As last character
26
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

fēi
0.45325,807 co-occurrences
0.44018,492 co-occurrences
píng
0.40234,449 co-occurrences
méi
0.3761,014 co-occurrences
0.3462,064 co-occurrences
chāo
0.3456,600 co-occurrences
0.3454,152 co-occurrences
0.34220,724 co-occurrences
0.3422,628 co-occurrences
ěr
0.3418,220 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

bùtóngfánxiǎngHSK 6+

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

phrase
bùzhīfánjǐHSK 6+

many; a lot

phrase
Fán'ěrsài GōngHSK 6+

Palace of Versailles

fánfūsúzǐHSK 6+

ordinary person

phrase
ròu yǎn fán tāiHSK 7+

ignoramus (idiom)

phrase
zhū fán bǎi shìHSK 6+

everything

phrase
zìmìngbùfánHSK 6+

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

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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

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 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《阿达》配了音。

Tā wèi 《 āfándá 》 pèi le yīn.

He has dubbed in "Avatar".

Tatoeba

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

事都要尽力而为。

Fánshì dōu yào jìnlì'érwéi.

In doing anything, you must do your best.

Tatoeba

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

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: 番 (time, foreign), 翻 (to turn over), 烦 (to feel vexed), 繁 (complicated), 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 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.