tān

greedy

Depicts a mouth () facing a shell (). In ancient China, shells were used as currency. also represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components
贝 iconic component

  Iconic component

bèi

  

sea shell

今 sound,iconic component

  Sound Iconic component

jīn

  

now

Evolution

贪 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
贪 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
贪 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
贪 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
贪 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

() 

tān

greedy, covet; covetous; to have a voracious desire for; to covet; greedy; corrupt

Most common words with 贪
Freq.
Word
Meaning

贪婪

avaricious

to covet

贪污

to be corrupt

贪心

greedy

贪官

corrupt official

Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 8.9700% of movies

2137th most common character in movies

1874th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Traditional

Unicode

U+8D2A


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