Meaning & readings

discuss, talk

On’yomi ダン

Origin

This character combines the speech radical , which marks characters related to talking and language, with on the right side. The component serves as a sound hint, suggesting roughly how the character should be pronounced, rather than contributing a meaning of its own. Together, the two parts create a character meaning to discuss or talk—the speech radical provides the semantic category, while the sound component helps anchor the specific pronunciation of this particular word for conversation.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

15 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 縁談 えんだん marriage proposal; marriage talks
  • 会談 かいだん talks (i.e. formal discussions); conference
  • 怪談 かいだん ghost story; tale of the supernatural
  • 歓談 かんだん pleasant talk; chat
  • 講談 こうだん storytelling (of war chronicles, revenge tales, etc.) with highly dramatic delivery; story
  • 懇談 こんだん friendly chat; relaxed conversation
  • 雑談 ざつだん chatting; idle talk
  • 示談 じだん settlement out of court; private settlement

Reference

Strokes
15
Kangxi radical
149
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#272 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+08AC7