Meaning of 淡
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- insipid
- diluted
- weak
- mild
- light in color
- tasteless
- indifferent
- (variant of 氮[dan4]) nitrogen
How to use 淡
淡 describes food that is not salty or strong, colors that are pale, and attitudes that are cool or distant. It often appears before a color, as in 淡蓝 (dàn lán, light blue). Example: 这个汤有点儿淡。(Zhège tāng yǒudiǎnr dàn.) This soup is a bit bland.
淡 is water 氵 added to 炎 (yán, two fires stacked). Pour water on a strong blaze and everything gets weaker: the flavor, the color, the feeling.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 淡 with 谈 (tán, to talk), which has the same 炎 part but the speech radical 讠 and a second tone. Also note that 淡 means not salty or bland, while 甜 (tián) means sweet. Saying a dish is 淡 is not a compliment about sweetness.
淡 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
淡 dàn · insipid · 11 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 淡.
| 冷淡 | lěngdàn | cold; indifferent |
| 平淡 | píngdàn | flat; dull |
| 清淡 | qīngdàn | light (of food, not greasy or strongly flavored); insipid |
| 淡化 | dànhuà | to water down; to play down |
| 淡季 | dànjì | off season; slow business season |
| 扯淡 | chědàn | to talk nonsense |
| 淡定 | dàndìng | calm and collected; unperturbed |
| 淡水 | Dànshuǐ | freshwater |
| 暗淡 | àndàn | dark; dim (light); dull (color); drab; (fig.) gloomy; bleak |
| 淡忘 | dànwàng | to gradually forget as time passes; to have (sth) fade from one's memory |
| 轻描淡写 | qīngmiáodànxiě | (idiom) to treat sth as no big deal; to downplay |
| 黯淡 | àndàn | variant of 暗淡[an4 dan4] |
Questions about 淡
What does 淡 mean?
淡 (dàn) means "insipid; diluted" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 淡?
淡 is made of 1 character: 淡 (11 strokes). That is 11 strokes in total.
Is 淡 an HSK word?
Yes. 淡 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the opposite of 淡 when talking about food or tea?
For food, the opposite is usually 咸 (xián, salty) or 浓 (nóng, strong, rich). For tea and coffee, people contrast 淡 with 浓, as in 浓茶 (nóng chá, strong tea).
Is 清淡 a positive or negative word for food?
清淡 (qīngdàn) is usually positive or neutral. It means light and not greasy, and doctors often tell patients to 吃清淡一点 (chī qīngdàn yìdiǎn, eat lighter food). Plain 淡 on its own more often suggests something lacks flavor.