(zàn): temporary

(zàn) is a Chinese character meaning “temporary.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1317 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, sun. Its radical form (sun) appears in many related characters such as (, sun, day), (zǎo, early, morning), (shí, time, hour).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. temporary

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticsun

Decomposition: ⿱斩日 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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
adjectivezàn shítemporary4
verbzàn tíngto suspend4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
duǎn zànof short duration
zàn qiěfor now
zàn huǎnto postpone
zàn dìngtemporary arrangement
zàn zhù zhèngtemporary residence permit
zàn xíngprovisional
zàn xīa lull (in the storm)
zàn tàitransient
shuì mián hū xī zàn tíngsleep apnea
zàn duǎnbrief (in time)
zàn tíng jiànpause button
zàn quēcurrently in short supply
zàn yádeciduous tooth
zàn gētemporarily stopped
16
Total compounds
88
As first character
6
As last character
6
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 88 as the first character, 6 as the last, and 6 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.

duǎn
0.61649,747 co-occurrences
tíng
0.61466,559 co-occurrences
0.53934,542 co-occurrences
huǎn
0.5216,197 co-occurrences
shí
0.48251,942 co-occurrences
0.4821,092 co-occurrences
0.4785,304 co-occurrences
0.4724,650 co-occurrences
yíng
0.44710,788 co-occurrences
0.43112,690 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

由于系统升级,网站时无法访问,预计两小时后恢复。

Yóuyú xìtǒng shēngjí, wǎngzhàn zànshí wúfǎ fǎngwèn, yùjì liǎng xiǎoshí hòu huīfù.

Due to system upgrades, the website is temporarily inaccessible and is expected to resume in two hours.

NewsFeb 2026

加拿大航空因安全局势停墨西哥巴亚尔塔港营运

jiā ná dà háng kōng yīn ān quán jú shì zàn tíng mò xī gē bā yà ěr tǎ gǎng yíng yùn

Air Canada suspends operations to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico due to security concerns.

NewsFeb 2026

沙巴附近海域7.1级地震 未有伤亡报告

shā bā fù jìn hǎi yù . jí dì zhèn zàn wèi yǒu shāng wáng bào gào

Magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes waters near Sabah; no casualties reported so far

NewsFeb 2026

...EYE成员Manon健康亮红灯 官方证实停活动

. . . chéng yuán jiàn kāng liàng hóng dēng guān fāng zhèng shí zàn tíng huó dòng

EYE member Manon's health raises red flags; official confirms temporary suspension of activities

NewsFeb 2026

...推翻!学者曝“川普仍占优势”:大法官仅短影响

. . . tuī fān ! xué zhě pù chuān pǔ réng zhàn yōu shì dà fǎ guān jǐn duǎn zàn yǐng xiǎng

...Overturn! Scholar Reveals "Trump Still Holds Advantage": Supreme Court Justices Only Briefly Influenced

NewsFeb 2026

川普关税急转弯!曾劝行政院缓与美谈判 施俊吉:可惜未获采用

chuān pǔ guān shuì jí zhuǎn wān ! céng quàn háng zhèng yuàn zàn huǎn yǔ měi tán pàn shī jùn jí kě xī wèi huò cǎi yòng

Trump Tariffs Take Sudden Turn! Formerly Advised Executive Yuan to Postpone Talks with U.S. Shih Chun-chi: Regrettably, Advice Was Not Adopted

Tatoeba

时藏在仓库里好了。

Zànshí cáng zài cāngkù lǐ hǎo le.

Hide it inside the warehouse for now.

Tatoeba

时下线洗澡吃饭,过40分左右回来!

Zànshí xiàxiàn xǐzǎo chīfàn, guo 40 fēn zuǒyòu huílai!

Break for bath & food, back in about 40 minutes!

Tatoeba

这个问题时放在一边。

Zhège wèntí zànshí fàng zài yībiān.

That problem has been shelved for the time being.

Tatoeba

对不起,您拨打的用户时无法接通。

Duìbuqǐ, nín bōdǎ de yònghù zànshí wúfǎ jiētōng.

Sorry. The number you have dialled is currently unavailable.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced zàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 暂 (zàn) mean in Chinese?
暂 (zàn) primarily means "temporary." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1317 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 暂 and 渐?
暂 (zàn) and 渐 (jiān) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 日 vs 氵 (same 斩 component).
How many strokes does 暂 have?
暂 is written with 12 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 暂?
The radical associated with 暂 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 暂?
暂 is composed of: 斩 (phonetic), 日 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱斩日 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 暂?
Common words with 暂 include: 暂时 (zàn shí, "temporary"); 暂停 (zàn tíng, "to suspend"); 短暂 (duǎn zàn, "of short duration"); 暂且 (zàn qiě, "for now"); 暂缓 (zàn huǎn, "to postpone"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 暂 (zàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zàn: 咱 (we, us), 赞 (praise). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 暂 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 暂 and the traditional form is 暫.

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.