甸 (diàn) is a Chinese character meaning “the open country outside a city”. It is written from 勹 (wrap) and 田 (field; farmland), one enclosing the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “outlying land”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
勹 + 田
Enclosing structure
Structure from: Unicode U+7538 radical data; modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 (2 + 5 = 7 strokes)
Memory aid
A wrapping arm (勹) curled around a field (田): the belt of farmland wrapped around a city — the land just outside the walls.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 甸子diàn zimeadow; grassy plain used for grazing甸 = diàn
Go deeper
All readings
outlying land
the open country outside a city; outlying land — mostly seen in place names and in 甸子
城外的郊野；多见于地名和「甸子」一词。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 甸子diàn zimeadow; grassy plain used for grazing甸 = diàn
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 甸 mean?
甸 (diàn) means the open country outside a city; outlying land — mostly seen in place names and in 甸子.
How do you pronounce 甸?
It is pronounced diàn.
What parts is 甸 made of?
勹 (wrap) and 田 (field; farmland), one enclosing the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+7538 radical data; modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 (2 + 5 = 7 strokes). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 甸 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 甸?
田. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 甸?
Common ones are 甸子. The reading of 甸 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.