段 (duàn) is a Chinese character meaning “section”. It is written from ㇒ (left-falling stroke) and ㇑ (vertical stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and 殳 (a hand holding a long-handled tool or weapon), side by side, and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “section”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
㇒ + ㇑ + ㇐ + ㇐ + ㇐ + 殳
Left–right structure
- ㇒ left-falling stroke unknown
- ㇑ vertical stroke unknown
- ㇐ horizontal stroke unknown
- ㇐ horizontal stroke unknown
- ㇐ horizontal stroke unknown
- 殳 a hand holding a long-handled tool or weapon · shū meaning
Structure from: Unicode U+6BB5; 康熙部首 殳; modern decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (strokes 1-5 form the unencoded left block: one 撇 ㇒, one 竖 ㇑ and three 横 ㇐; strokes 6-9 form a complete 殳)
Memory aid
A hand holding a tool (殳) on the right, hammering at a block on the left: one slanted chip flies off the top (㇒), an upright edge holds the block steady (㇑), and three flat cuts (㇐) mark it off. 段 is one cut-off section of something long.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 阶段jiē duànstage; phase段 = duàn
- 段落duàn luòparagraph; section (of a text)段 = duàn
Go deeper
All readings
section
section; segment; paragraph; a stretch or length of something; (measure word for lengths, stretches of road or time)
整体中划分出来的一部分；也作量词，用于长条形事物或一段时间。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 阶段jiē duànstage; phase段 = duàn
- 段落duàn luòparagraph; section (of a text)段 = duàn
Other characters with these parts
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 段 mean?
段 (duàn) means section; segment; paragraph; a stretch or length of something; (measure word for lengths, stretches of road or time).
How do you pronounce 段?
It is pronounced duàn.
What parts is 段 made of?
㇒ (left-falling stroke) and ㇑ (vertical stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and ㇐ (horizontal stroke) and 殳 (a hand holding a long-handled tool or weapon), side by side. The recorded source is: Unicode U+6BB5; 康熙部首 殳; modern decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (strokes 1-5 form the unencoded left block: one 撇 ㇒, one 竖 ㇑ and three 横 ㇐; strokes 6-9 form a complete 殳). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 段 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 段?
殳. 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 段?
Common ones are 阶段 and 段落. The reading of 段 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.