Kanji N1

淡: thin, faint, pale

淡 is a JLPT N1 kanji meaning thin, faint, pale, written with 11 strokes. It is read タン (on) and あわい (kun). It is one of the jōyō kanji taught in secondary school. You will see it in 淡水 (たんすい, fresh water) and 冷淡 (れいたん, cool).

淡

Meanings

  • thin
  • faint
  • pale
  • fleeting
Strokes11
JLPT levelN1
School gradeSecondary school
Frequency#1436 of 2,500

On reading · Kun reading

On reading
  • タン

On'yomi: from Chinese, written in katakana. Used in compound words.

Kun reading
  • あわい

Kun'yomi: native Japanese, in hiragana. The faint part is the okurigana, written in kana after the kanji.

Watch the stroke order

Every stroke in order, the live one in vermilion. Replay as often as you like.

1234567891011

Now draw it

Trace each stroke in order. Wrong direction or wrong order gets flagged right away.

12345678910110 / 11

Your turn: draw stroke 1 of 11. Start at the dot.

Common words with 淡

The most useful words written with it, easiest first. Every other kanji in them opens its own page.

  • 淡水たんすい

    fresh water (i.e. not salt water)

    JLPT N2
  • 冷淡れいたん

    cool; indifferent; apathetic; half-hearted

    JLPT N1
  • 淡々たんたん

    uninterested; unconcerned; indifferent

  • 濃淡のうたん

    light and shade; shade (of colour, color)

  • 淡白たんぱく

    light (flavor, color, etc.); simple; plain

  • 淡いあわい

    light (color, taste, etc.); faint (e.g. smell)

  • 淡水魚たんすいぎょ

    freshwater fish

  • 淡紅色たんこうしょく

    pink; rose

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Stroke order from KanjiVG © Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0. Readings, meanings and words from KANJIDIC2 and JMdict, names from JMnedict, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata, CC0; the Spanish meanings they lack, translated by Naraio from their English, are shared under the same licence. Example sentences from Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR. JLPT lists after Jonathan Waller (tanos.co.uk), CC BY. Sentences split into words with IPADIC © NAIST and IPA, through Lindera.