蕃 (fān): foreign (non-Chinese), luxuriant

蕃 (fān) is a Chinese character meaning “foreign (non-chinese).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 番 (phonetic). It ranks #3728 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 蕃 grass. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 蒸 (zhēng, to steam), 草 (cǎo, grass), 花 (huā, flower).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. foreign (non-Chinese)
  2. luxuriant

Etymology & Origin

蕃

pictophoneticgrass

Decomposition: ⿱艹番 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
蕃茄fān qiévariant of 番茄
吐蕃王朝tǔ bō wáng cháoTibetan Tubo Dynasty 7th-11th century AD
吐蕃proper-nountǔ bōTubo or Tufan, old name for Tibet
蕃庑fán wúvariant of 繁蕪|繁芜
蕃衍fán yǎnvariant of 繁衍
5
Total compounds
60
As first character
20
As last character
20
As middle character

蕃 appears in 5 compound words: 60 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 20 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习蕃字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí fān zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Learning Tibetan script requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

安史之乱爆发后,河西走廊被吐蕃势力切断,安西、北庭都护府将士与中原朝廷音讯隔绝。

ān shǐ zhī luàn bào fā hòu , hé xī zǒu láng bèi tǔ fān shì lì qiē duàn , ān xī , běi tíng dōu hù fǔ jiāng shì yǔ zhōng yuán cháo tíng yīn xùn gé jué .

After the An Lushan Rebellion broke out, the Hexi Corridor was cut off by Tibetan forces, and the soldiers and officials of the Anxi and Beiting Protectorates were cut off from communication with the central court.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

他走的路线是从咸阳出发,还是从陇西郡集结,沿唐蕃古道西进?

tā zǒu de lù xiàn shì cóng xián yáng chū fā , hái shì cóng 陇 xī jùn jí jié , yán táng fān gǔ dào xī jìn ?

Did he set out from Xianyang, or did he gather his forces in Longxi Commandery and head west along the Ancient Tang-Tibet Road?

UdnnewsindexApr 2026

高雄小货车掉落一箱蕃茄 一群机车闪过但仍酿女子压到摔车

gāo xióng xiǎo huò chē diào luò yī xiāng fān jiā yī qún jī chē shǎn guò dàn réng niàng nǚ zǐ yā dào shuāi chē

A box of tomatoes fell from a small truck in Kaohsiung; a group of motorcyclists swerved to avoid it, but a woman was still struck and fell from her bike.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (grass) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced fān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 蕃 (fān) mean in Chinese?
蕃 (fān) primarily means "foreign (non-chinese)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3728 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 蕃 and 潘?
蕃 (fān) and 潘 (pān) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 氵 (same 番 component).
How many strokes does 蕃 have?
蕃 is written with 15 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 蕃?
The radical associated with 蕃 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 蕃?
蕃 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 番 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹番 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 蕃?
Common words with 蕃 include: 蕃茄 (fān qié, "variant of 番茄"); 吐蕃王朝 (tǔ bō wáng cháo, "Tibetan Tubo Dynasty 7th-11th century AD"); 吐蕃 (tǔ bō, "Tubo or Tufan, old name for Tibet"); 蕃庑 (fán wú, "variant of 繁蕪|繁芜"); 蕃衍 (fán yǎn, "variant of 繁衍"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 蕃 (fān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation fān: 翻 (to turn over). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 蕃 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 蕃 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 蕃 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.