How to Write 疸 (dǎn) — Meaning “jaundice”

Imagine a sick person (疒) lying in bed at dawn (旦), because jaundice often makes the skin look yellow like early morning sunlight. The sun rising at dawn (旦) helps you link the shape and sound dǎn to the yellow color of jaundice. Visualize the sun inside the sickness radical to recall both meaning and pronunciation.

The radical 疒 has a dot on top, a left-slanting stroke, and two dots on the left side; do not forget the final dot inside the enclosure. The inside part 旦 must be drawn smaller, with the horizontal stroke at the bottom extending slightly beyond the vertical line. A common mistake is making the 旦 too large or misaligning its top stroke with the top dot of 疒.

While 疙 (gē) means a lump or pimple and 疚 (jiù) means remorse or guilt, 疸 specifically means jaundice, a liver-related disease. Visually, 疸 contains 旦 (dawn), 疙 contains 乞 (beg), and 疚 contains 久 (long time). Their radicals are all 疒, but the inner parts give each character a completely different meaning and pronunciation.

You will almost always see 疸 in medical contexts, especially in the common word 黄疸 (huáng dǎn, jaundice). It is also used in terms like 疸症 (dǎn zhèng) for the condition of jaundice. Although not common in everyday conversation, it appears in health discussions and hospital reports about newborn jaundice or liver disease.

Common words containing 疸 include: 黄疸 (huáng dǎn) — jaundice; 疸症 (dǎn zhèng) — jaundice; 黄疸病 (huáng dǎn bìng) — jaundice.