痰 (tán): phlegm, spittle

痰 (tán) is a Chinese character meaning “phlegm.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 疒 (semantic) and 炎 (phonetic). It ranks #2770 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 疒 illness13 strokesFrequency #2770疒 semantic炎 phonetic

Definitions

  1. phlegm
  2. spittle

Etymology & Origin

痰

pictophoneticsickness

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

Components:疒semantic炎phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
痰盂tán yúspittoon
化痰huà tánto transform phlegm (TCM)
理气化痰lǐ qì huà tán(TCM) to rectify 氣|气[qi4] and transform phlegm
鱼生火，肉生痰，青菜豆腐保平安yú shēng huǒ , ròu shēng tán , qīng cài dòu fu bǎo píng ānfish brings heat, meat brings phlegm, vegetables and tofu keep you healthy
痰盂儿tán yú rerhua variant of 痰盂[tan2 yu2]
痰盂式tán yú shìspittoon-shaped
卡痰kǎ tánto have phlegm stuck in one's throat
祛痰药qū tán yàomedicine to dispel phlegm (TCM)
痰液tán yèsaliva
吐痰tǔ tánto spit
祛痰qū tánto dispel phlegm (TCM)
咳痰ké tánto cough up phlegm
黏痰nián tánphlegm
13
Total compounds
31
As first character
54
As last character
15
As middle character

痰 appears in 13 compound words: 31 as the first character, 54 as the last, and 15 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 痰 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

咳hāi
0.7081,230 co-occurrences
嗽sòu
0.624360 co-occurrences
吐tǔ
0.543843 co-occurrences
喘chuǎn
0.534192 co-occurrences
液yè
0.431390 co-occurrences
肺fèi
0.423192 co-occurrences
唾tuò
0.41530 co-occurrences
沫mò
0.40754 co-occurrences
稠chóu
0.39542 co-occurrences
喉hóu
0.39172 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

痰字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

tán zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "痰" has different usages in different contexts.

99 健康网Apr 2026

渐冻症痰多还能活多久?呼吸肌无力导致排痰困难的预...

jiān dòng zhèng tán duō hái néng huó duō jiǔ ? hū xī jī wú lì dǎo zhì pái tán kùn nán de yù . . .

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...韩国瑜:不要化骨绵掌 赖清德:专长止咳化痰

. . . hán guó 瑜 : bù yāo huà gǔ mián zhǎng lài qīng dé : zhuān cháng zhǐ hāi huà tán

... Han Guoyu: Don't turn bones into cotton palms Lai Qingde: Specialize in relieving cough and phlegm

Tatoeba

随地吐痰在新加坡算是犯罪行为。

Suídì tǔtán zài Xīnjiāpō suànshì fànzuìxíngwéi.

In Singapore, it is a crime to spit on the ground.

Tatoeba

他有个随地吐痰的习惯。

Tā yǒu gè suídì tǔtán de xíguàn.

He has the habit of spitting on the ground.

Character Family

疒 Radical Family — Characters sharing the illness radical

癌ái疤bā痹bì病bìng痴chī疵cī瘩dá疯fēng疙gē痕hén

Related Characters

医yī病bìng疼téng痛tòng疗liáo疯fēng瘦shòu疾jí症zhèng疫yì

Homophones — Characters pronounced tán

谈tán贪tān摊tān滩tān瘫tān坛tán潭tán坦tǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 痰 (tán) mean in Chinese?
痰 (tán) primarily means "phlegm." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2770 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 痰 and 淡?
痰 (tán) and 淡 (dàn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 疒 vs 氵 (same 炎 component).
How many strokes does 痰 have?
痰 is written with 13 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 痰?
The radical associated with 痰 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 痰?
痰 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 炎 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒炎 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 痰?
Common words with 痰 include: 痰盂 (tán yú, "spittoon"); 化痰 (huà tán, "to transform phlegm (TCM)"); 理气化痰 (lǐ qì huà tán, "(TCM) to rectify 氣|气[qi4] and transform phlegm"); 鱼生火，肉生痰，青菜豆腐保平安 (yú shēng huǒ , ròu shēng tán , qīng cài dòu fu bǎo píng ān, "fish brings heat, meat brings phlegm, vegetables and tofu keep you healthy"); 痰盂儿 (tán yú r, "erhua variant of 痰盂[tan2 yu2]"). There are over 13 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 痰 (tán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tán: 谈 (to talk, to discuss), 贪 (greedy), 摊 (to spread out), 滩 (beach), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 痰 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 痰 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.