(tān): paralyzed

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

Etymologically derived, sickness. Its radical form (illness) appears in many related characters such as (, medicine), (bìng, illness), (téng, ache).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. paralyzed

Etymology & Origin

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
tān huàn(medicine) to suffer paralysis
jié tānparaplegia
nǎo tāncerebral palsy
tān ziparalyzed person
tān ruǎnlimp
piān tānparalysis of one side of the body
miàn tānfacial nerve paralysis
běi jīng tān"Beijing slouch", sitting posture said to be adopted esp. by Beijingers, popularized by 葛優|葛优[Ge3 You1]
fēng tānto be paralyzed
xiàn yú tān huànto be paralyzed
fēng tānvariant of 風癱|风瘫[feng1 tan1]
11
Total compounds
27
As first character
64
As last character
9
As middle character

appears in 11 compound words: 27 as the first character, 64 as the last, and 9 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.

huàn
0.94510,659 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.5131,656 co-occurrences
nǎo
0.473558 co-occurrences
zhī
0.443294 co-occurrences
tài
0.405570 co-occurrences
zhuàng
0.404618 co-occurrences
chè
0.395150 co-occurrences
tuǐ
0.392162 co-occurrences
piān
0.375342 co-occurrences
0.364114 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,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

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

全面罢工痪了整个国家。

Quánmiàn bàgōng tānhuàn le zhěnggè guójiā.

The general strike paralyzed the whole country.

Tatoeba

他的痪正在恶化,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

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 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瘫 (tān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tān: 摊 (to spread out), 贪 (greedy), 滩 (beach), 坛 (altar, forum), 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 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.