(pán): tray, plate, dish, (finance) (bound form) market prices, (computing) (bound form) disk

(pán) is a Chinese character meaning “tray.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (semantic). It ranks #1048 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, dish. Its radical form (dish) appears in many related characters such as (, benefit), (yán, salt), (gài, lid).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. tray
  2. plate
  3. dish
  4. (finance) (bound form) market prices
  5. (computing) (bound form) disk

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticdish

Decomposition: ⿱舟皿 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
nounpán zitray3
nounjiàn pánkeyboard5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dì pándomain
pán wènto interrogate
quán pánoverall
pán xuánto spiral
pán suànto plot
qí pánchessboard
luó páncompass
dǐ pánchassis
cí pán(computer) disk
guāng páncompact disc (CD)
jiǎo páncapstan
pán cháto interrogate
pīn pánsampler platter
lěng páncold plate
pán diǎnto make an inventory
100
Total compounds
53
As first character
47
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 53 as the first character, 47 as the last, and 0 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.

jiàn
0.63919,071 co-occurrences
0.5459,228 co-occurrences
shèng
0.53919,686 co-occurrences
yìng
0.51510,866 co-occurrences
0.5037,536 co-occurrences
yuán
0.4865,358 co-occurrences
jiǎo
0.455600 co-occurrences
de
0.4349,276 co-occurrences
jǐn
0.4252,616 co-occurrences
zhǎn
0.414204 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

jiànpán yuèqìHSK 5+

keyboard instrument

noun
pángēncuòjiéHSK 3+

great tangled root system; complicated affair; complicated and difficult to deal with

phrase
pánlóngwòhǔHSK 5+

intertwined dragons and sleeping tigers; talented men still remaining in concealment

phrase
pán xuán qū zhéHSK 6+

(idiom) (of a road etc) to wind circuitously

phrase
rúyìsuànpánHSK 3+

one's wishful thinking; counting the chickens before they are hatched

phrase
shāpán tuīyǎnHSK 4+

to plan military strategy using a sand table; to conduct a practice run; to do a rehearsal; to run a mock

phrase
bēipánlángjíHSK 6+

describes wine cups and plates spread over a dining table in disarray after a feast

phrase
hǔ jù lóng pánHSK 5+

lit. where tigers crouch and dragons coil (idiom); fig. forbidding terrain

phrase

Showing 8 of 9 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由11笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

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

The character "盘" consists of 11 strokes and has a very ingenious structure.

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

中速报 - MANTRA大涨8.28%,...

pán zhōng sù bào M A N T R A dà zhǎng 8 . 2 8 , . . .

Intraday Express - MANTRA surged 8.28%,...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...DR封关期间涨逾2%...台股金马年开红 蓄势冲关34K

. . . D R fēng guān qī jiān zhǎng yú 2 . . . tái gǔ jīn mǎ nián kāi hóng pán xù shì chōng guān 3 4 K

... DR rose more than 2% during the customs closure... Taiwan stocks opened in the red market in the Year of the Golden Horse and are poised to break through 34K

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

中速报 - Ethena大跌8.31%,...

pán zhōng sù bào E t h e n a dà diē 8 . 3 1 , . . .

Intraday Express - Ethena fell 8.31%,...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

五特攻队跃领涨先锋 将是大上冲34,000点焦点

wǔ tè gōng duì yuè lǐng zhǎng xiān fēng jiāng shì dà pán shàng chōng 3 4 , 0 0 0 diǎn jiāo diǎn

The five special forces jumped to the vanguard and will be the focus of the market rising to 34,000 points

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

美关税新变局 台币走势将以待变

měi guān shuì xīn biàn jú tái bì zǒu shì jiāng yǐ pán dài biàn

New changes in US tariffs The trend of the Taiwan dollar will be waiting for changes

Tatoeba

的角色是滋养胎儿。

Tāipán de juésè shì zīyǎng tāi'ér.

The role of the placenta is to nourish the foetus.

Tatoeba

到洗涤槽去帮忙洗碗吧!

Dào xǐdícáo qù bāngmáng xǐwǎn pán ba!

Go and help wash up at the sink!

Tatoeba

抓饭配一些烤肉串就是人间天堂。

Yī pán zhuāfàn pèi yīxiē kǎoròu chuàn jiùshì rénjiāntiāntáng.

A plate of pilaf with some kebabs is heaven on earth.

Tatoeba

塑料子在烤箱里会化的。

Sùliào pánzi zài kǎoxiāng lǐ huì huà de.

A plastic dish will melt on the stove.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced pán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 盘 (pán) mean in Chinese?
盘 (pán) primarily means "tray." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1048 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 盘 and 搬?
盘 (pán) and 搬 (bān) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 皿 vs 扌 (same 般 component).
How many strokes does 盘 have?
盘 is written with 11 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 盘?
The radical associated with 盘 is 皿 (dish). This radical appears in many characters related to dish.
What are the components of 盘?
盘 is composed of: 舟 (structural), 皿 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱舟皿 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 盘?
Common words with 盘 include: 地盘 (dì pán, "domain"); 盘子 (pán zi, "tray"); 盘问 (pán wèn, "to interrogate"); 键盘 (jiàn pán, "keyboard"); 全盘 (quán pán, "overall"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 盘 (pán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation pán: 潘 (Pan, faun in Greek mythology, son of Hermes), 攀 (to climb (by pulling oneself up)), 判 ((bound form) to differentiate), 叛 (to betray), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 盘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 盘 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.