(pàn): (bound form) to differentiate, to distinguish, (bound form) clearly (different), to judge, to decide, to grade

(pàn) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to differentiate.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #719 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, knife. Its radical form (knife) appears in many related characters such as (fēn, to divide), (bié, to leave), (dào, to reach).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to differentiate
  2. to distinguish
  3. (bound form) clearly (different)
  4. to judge
  5. to decide
  6. to grade

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticknife

Decomposition: ⿰半刂 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
verbpàn duànto judge4
verbtán pànto negotiate6
verb/nouncái pàn(law) to judge5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shěn pàna trial
pàn juéjudgment (by a court of law)
píng pànto judge (a competition)
pàn duàn lìability to judge
xuān pànto deliver one's judgement
pàn dìngto judge
pàn chǔto sentence
pàn xíngto sentence (to prison etc)
pī pànto criticize
cái pàn yuánreferee
pàn fáto penalize
wù pànto misjudge
pàn zuìto convict (sb of a crime)
pàn lìjudicial precedent
shěn pàn tíngcourt
57
Total compounds
40
As first character
32
As last character
28
As middle character

appears in 57 compound words: 40 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 28 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.

tán
0.66974,816 co-occurrences
cái
0.668128,842 co-occurrences
shěn
0.63478,405 co-occurrences
xíng
0.58976,379 co-occurrences
zuì
0.54762,208 co-occurrences
0.53779,350 co-occurrences
duàn
0.52834,248 co-occurrences
0.50937 co-occurrences
jué
0.50358,668 co-occurrences
chǔ
0.49862,664 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

hépíng tánpànHSK 4+

peace talks

noun
pànruòliǎngrénHSK 7+

to be like a different person

phrase
pàn ruò yún níHSK 7+

as different as heaven and earth (idiom); worlds apart

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le pàn zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "判" in the dictionary.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

阿曼:美伊26日再次瑞士谈 伊朗外长:核问题仍可能外交解决

ā 曼 : měi yī 2 6 rì zài cì ruì shì tán pàn yī lǎng wài cháng : hé wèn tí réng kě néng wài jiāo jiě jué

Oman: The United States and Iran held talks again in Switzerland on the 26th Iranian Foreign Minister: The nuclear issue may still be resolved diplomatically

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

阿曼外交大臣:美伊下一轮谈将于26日在日内瓦举行

ā 曼 wài jiāo dà chén : měi yī xià yī lún tán pàn jiāng yú 2 6 rì zài rì nèi wǎ jǔ háng

Oman Foreign Minister: The next round of negotiations between the United States and Iran will be held in Geneva on the 26th

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

特朗普向全球加征关税至15% 回应最高院决 另引例实施150日

tè lǎng pǔ xiàng quán qiú jiā zhēng guān shuì zhì 1 5 huí yīng zuì gāo yuàn pàn jué lìng yǐn lì shí shī 1 5 0 rì

Trump imposed tariffs on the world to 15% in response to the Supreme Court's ruling and cited another example for 150 days

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

川普关税被违法...南华早报:3月川习会 华府筹码...

chuān pǔ guān shuì bèi pàn wéi fǎ . . . nán huá zǎo bào : 3 yuè chuān xí huì huá fǔ chóu mǎ . . .

Trump tariffs found illegal... South China Morning Post: March Sichuan-Xi meeting Washington chips...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

经济日报社论/台美对等贸易协定的误与修正

jīng jì rì bào shè lùn tái měi duì děng mào yì xié dìng de wù pàn yǔ xiū zhèng

Economic Daily Editorial/Misjudgment and Amendment of the Taiwan-US Reciprocal Trade Agreement

Tatoeba

外交谈帮助结束了冲突。

Wàijiāo tánpàn bāngzhù jiéshù le chōngtū.

Diplomatic dialogue helped put an end to the conflict.

Tatoeba

法官了他一年有期徒刑。

Fǎguān pàn le tā yī nián yǒuqītúxíng.

The judge sentenced him to one year's imprisonment.

Tatoeba

我们可以信赖他的断。

Wǒmen kěyǐ xìnlài tā de pànduàn.

We can rely on his judgement.

Tatoeba

陪审团作出的犯罪决激起了很大的争论。

Péishěntuán zuòchū de fànzuì pànjué jīqǐ le hěn dà de zhēnglùn.

The jury's guilty verdict gave rise to widespread debate.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced pàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 判 (pàn) mean in Chinese?
判 (pàn) primarily means "(bound form) to differentiate." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #719 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 判 and 胖?
判 (pàn) and 胖 (pàng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 刂 vs 月 (same 半 component).
How many strokes does 判 have?
判 is written with 7 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 判?
The radical associated with 判 is 刂 (knife). This radical appears in many characters related to knife.
What are the components of 判?
判 is composed of: 半 (phonetic), 刂 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰半刂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 判?
Common words with 判 include: 审判 (shěn pàn, "a trial"); 判断 (pàn duàn, "to judge"); 谈判 (tán pàn, "to negotiate"); 判决 (pàn jué, "judgment (by a court of law)"); 裁判 (cái pàn, "(law) to judge"). There are over 57 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 判 (pàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pàn: 叛 (to betray), 潘 (Pan, faun in Greek mythology, son of Hermes), 攀 (to climb (by pulling oneself up)), 盘 (tray), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 判 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 判 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.