Onyomi: タン, ダン · Kunyomi: - · Meanings: grade, stairs, steps
Kanji for grade, stairs, steps
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段 is made from 殳, meaning a striking or action-related movement, and the left side that suggests separation. In the past, repeated actions or steps created clear breaks between levels or parts. These separated actions formed stages, steps, or sections. From this idea, 段 came to mean a step, stage, level, or division.
段 represents actions that create clear steps or stages.
Imagine climbing stairs, each step formed by repeated actions. Each clear level you reach is a 段.
| Word | Reading | Meaning | Meta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 段 | だん | step, stair, rung, (flight of) steps | common JLPT-N3 Noun, Counter |
| 反 | たん | variable measure of fabric (28.8 cm in width), for kimonos: at least 10 m in length, for haori: at least 7.27 m in length, for other clothes: at least 6.06 m in length | JLPT-N1 Noun |
| 段々 | だんだん | gradually, by degrees, little by little, more and more, increasingly | common JLPT-N1 JLPT-N5 Adverb (fukushi), Adverb taking the 'to' particle |
| 洋袴 | ズボン | trousers, pants | common JLPT-N5 Noun |
| 段階 | だんかい | stage, step, phase | common JLPT-N2 Noun |
| 段落 | だんらく | paragraph | common Noun |
| 段取り | だんどり | programme, program, plans, arrangements | common Noun, Suru verb |
| 段違い | だんちがい | wildly different (in ability, strength, etc.), on another level, in a different league, a world apart, far better | Noun which may take the genitive case particle 'no', Na-adjective (keiyodoshi), Noun |
| 段ボール | だんボール | (corrugated) cardboard | common Noun |
| ギザギザ | ギザギザ | notches, serration, indentation, jaggies (stair-step artifacts in computer images) | common Noun |