King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “phlegm”

痰
tán
phlegm; spittle

The closest CC-CEDICT match for phlegm is 痰 (tán), defined as: phlegm; spittle.

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

痰 tán
mucus, phlegm, spit
radical 104 ⽧ · 13 strokes

Other Chinese words for “phlegm”

WordPinyinMeaning
黏痰nián tánphlegm

Related words

Other words that share a character with 痰.

WordPinyinMeaning
化痰huà tánto transform phlegm (TCM)
吐痰tǔ tánto spit; to expectorate
痰盂tán yúspittoon
祛痰qū tánto dispel phlegm (TCM)
咳痰ké tánto cough up phlegm; to expectorate
卡痰kǎ tánto have phlegm stuck in one's throat

See also: Japanese symbol for “phlegm”.

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.

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