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慘淡

简惨淡 · 繁慘淡

Mandarin · pinyin cǎn dàn

dark
gloomy
dismal
by painstaking effort

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Characters in this entry

慘: Look up this written character
淡: dàn · weak, watery; insipid, tasteless
惨: cǎn · sad, pitiful, wretched; cruel

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–4 · can3 dan4

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2character links1same-tone record

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

慘淡 · find source passages ↗ · 惨淡 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caam2 daam6

Cantonese word readings for 慘淡. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

adj

gloomy; sombre; dim
sad; desolate
(of business, situation, etc.) bleak; slack
painstaking

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack