瘫 (tān): paralyzed

瘫 (tān) is a Chinese character meaning “paralyzed.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 疒 (semantic) and 难 (phonetic). It ranks #2647 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 瘫 sickness. Its radical form 疒 (illness) appears in many related characters such as 医 (yī, medicine), 病 (bìng, illness), 疼 (téng, ache).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. paralyzed

Etymology & Origin

瘫

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒难 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
瘫痪verbtān huàn(medicine) to suffer paralysis
截瘫verbjié tānparaplegia
脑瘫nounnǎo tāncerebral palsy
瘫子nountān ziparalyzed person
瘫软verbtān ruǎnlimp
偏瘫nounpiān tānparalysis of one side of the body
高位截瘫gāo wèi jié tān(medicine) high paraplegia
面瘫nounmiàn tānfacial nerve paralysis
北京瘫běi jīng tān"Beijing slouch", sitting posture said to be adopted esp. by Beijingers, popularized by 葛優|葛优
风瘫nounfēng tānto be paralyzed
陷于瘫痪xiàn yú tān huànto be paralyzed
疯瘫fēng tānvariant of 風癱|风瘫
12
Total compounds
25
As first character
67
As last character
8
As middle character

瘫 appears in 12 compound words: 25 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 8 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 瘫 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

痪huàn
0.9453,585 co-occurrences
陷xiàn
0.505552 co-occurrences
脑nǎo
0.466186 co-occurrences
肢zhī
0.43798 co-occurrences
态tài
0.399190 co-occurrences
状zhuàng
0.398206 co-occurrences
彻chè
0.38950 co-occurrences
腿tuǐ
0.38654 co-occurrences
偏piān
0.370114 co-occurrences
肌jī
0.35938 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习瘫字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

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

Mastering the character "瘫" requires repeated practice to write it neatly.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

...“台湾咽喉”?专家曝1炼油副产品 恐一夕瘫痪半导体生产

. . . tái wān yān hóu ? zhuān jiā pù 1 liàn yóu fù chǎn pǐn kǒng yī xī tān huàn bàn dǎo tǐ shēng chǎn

...“Taiwan’s Throat”? Expert Reveals That One Refinery Byproduct Could Paralyze Semiconductor Production Overnight

TvbsMar 2026

...直肠癌末期“转移腹膜” 坚持不化疗!痛到瘫在马桶旁爬不起来

. . . zhí cháng ái mò qī zhuǎn yí fù mó jiān chí bù huà liáo ! tòng dào tān zài mǎ tǒng páng pá bù qǐ lái

...Terminal rectal cancer with "peritoneal metastasis"—refusing chemotherapy! The pain is so severe that I’m paralyzed next to the toilet and can’t get up

WorldjournalMar 2026

...普:不担心会重蹈“越战”覆辙 1小时就可瘫痪伊朗电力

. . . pǔ : bù dān xīn huì chóng dǎo yuè zhàn fù zhé 1 xiǎo shí jiù kě tān huàn yī lǎng diàn lì

...Pu: Not Worried About Repeating the Mistakes of the Vietnam War; Iran's Power Grid Could Be Paralyzed in Just One Hour

Hk01.comMar 2026

伊朗局势|霍尔木兹海峡航运瘫痪 全球1成货柜船受困

yī lǎng jú shì huò ěr mù zī hǎi xiá háng yùn tān huàn quán qiú 1 chéng huò guì chuán shòu kùn

Situation in Iran|Shipping in the Strait of Hormuz is paralyzed, and 10% of the world's container ships are trapped

三立新聞網Feb 2026

洗苹果别直接冲!没做1事恐酿排水管瘫痪

xǐ píng guǒ bié zhí jiē chōng ! méi zuò 1 shì kǒng niàng pái shuǐ guǎn tān huàn

Don't wash apples directly! If you don't do 1 thing, you may cause the drain pipe to be paralyzed

Tatoeba

全面罢工瘫痪了整个国家。

Quánmiàn bàgōng tānhuàn le zhěnggè guójiā.

The general strike paralyzed the whole country.

Tatoeba

他的瘫痪正在恶化,不久他就不能下床了。

Tā de tānhuàn zhèngzài èhuà, bù jiǔ tā jiù bù néng xià chuáng le.

His paralysis is progressing, and soon he won't be able to get out of bed.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 疒 (sickness) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced tān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瘫 (tān) mean in Chinese?
瘫 (tān) primarily means "paralyzed." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2647 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 瘫 have?
瘫 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 瘫?
The radical associated with 瘫 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 瘫?
瘫 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 难 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒难 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瘫?
Common words with 瘫 include: 瘫痪 (tān huàn, "(medicine) to suffer paralysis"); 截瘫 (jié tān, "paraplegia"); 脑瘫 (nǎo tān, "cerebral palsy"); 瘫子 (tān zi, "paralyzed person"); 瘫软 (tān ruǎn, "limp"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瘫 (tān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tān: 摊 (to spread out), 谈 (to talk, to discuss), 探 (to explore), 坦 (flat, candid), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 瘫 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瘫 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 瘫 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.