Chinese Character Wiki
貪

tān

greedy

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

Components
貝 iconic component

貝  Iconic component

bèi

  

sea shell

今 sound,iconic component

今  Sound Iconic component

jīn

  

now

Evolution

貪 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
貪 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

贪 (貪) 

tān

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

Most common words with 貪
Freq.
Word
Meaning

贪婪

avaricious

贪

to covet

贪污

to be corrupt

贪心

greedy

贪官

corrupt official

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*r̥ˤ[ə]m

thom

tān

to covet


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

11

Simplified

贪

Unicode

U+8CAA

Shuowen

“貪，欲物也。从貝，今聲。”


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