碳

tàn
#2,734 most
frequent character
carbon (chemistry)

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

碳 was built from 石 stone and 炭 tàn charcoal, which doubles as the sound part. Stone and charcoal together point to the single meaning, 'carbon'.

Ask DeepSeek

Homophones

探tàn
to explore, to search out, to scout
叹tàn
to sigh, to exclaim

Your word lists

Sign in to add this word to your private lists.