善 — Chinese character
善
shàn
good, virtuous, charitable, kind
- Pinyin
- shàn
- Radical
- 30 ⼝ (Mouth)
- Strokes
- 12
- Components
- 羊 丷 一 口
- Formation
- ideographic — To give someone food 羊 and conversation 口
- Japanese
- 善 as a kanji
Common words with 善
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 改善 | gǎi shàn | to make better; to improve |
| 完善 | wán shàn | (of systems, facilities etc) comprehensive; well-developed |
| 慈善 | cí shàn | benevolent; charitable |
| 善于 (善於) | shàn yú | to be good at; to be adept at |
| 善良 | shàn liáng | good and honest; kindhearted |
| 友善 | yǒu shàn | friendly |
| 妥善 | tuǒ shàn | appropriate; proper |
| 善意 | shàn yì | goodwill; benevolence |
| 不善 | bù shàn | bad; ill |
| 善恶 (善惡) | shàn è | good and evil; good versus evil |
| 善后 (善後) | shàn hòu | to deal with the aftermath (arising from an accident); funeral arrangements |
| 善用 | shàn yòng | to be good at using (sth); to put (sth) to good use |
English words written with 善
- charity
- contributions
- donations
- perfection
- charitable
- goodwill
- imperfect
- benevolent
- philanthropy
- hypocritical
- philanthropist
- mercurial
善 in the Chinese classics
Occurrences: Tao Te Ching 52 · Analects 42 · Art of War 33 · Mencius 114 · Zhuangzi 90 · Great Learning 11 · Doctrine of the Mean 11
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 2
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 8
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 15
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 20
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 27
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 30
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 41
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 49
Data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.