Chinese symbol for “carbon”
碳
tàn
carbon (chemistry)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for carbon is 碳 (tàn), defined as: carbon (chemistry).
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Related words
Other words that share a character with 碳.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 二氧化碳 | èr yǎng huà tàn | carbon dioxide CO2 |
| 一氧化碳 | yī yǎng huà tàn | carbon monoxide CO |
| 碳酸 | tàn suān | carbonic acid |
| 碳化 | tàn huà | to carbonize; dry distillation |
| 碳酸钙 (碳酸鈣) | tàn suān gài | calcium carbonate |
| 低碳 | dī tàn | (attributive) low-carbon; low-carb (diet) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “carbon”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.