dàn
noun #20,352

Meanings

  1. 1 dawn
  2. 2 daybreak
  3. 3 day

Examples

HSK 1
Yuándàn
New Year's Day
HSK 1
Yīdàn
once; in case of

Tips

usage
(sun) above (horizon) - the sun rising at dawn.

Components

radical
sun; day
Top sun radical - pictograph of the sun, with the inner stroke marking the disc to distinguish it from a plain circle. The indexing radical here, naturally enough: means dawn, the moment when the sun first appears. The radical anchors in the timekeeping family alongside early, late, bright, morning.
ideograph
one; horizon line
Abstract positional marker: the bottom horizontal acts as a horizon line beneath the sun above, fixing the exact instant of sunrise as it lifts clear of the earth. Not the numeral one - a pure ideographic indicator. Among the most compact ideographs in the script.

Stroke Order

dàn