Dadan

D2A1D2A1N1
/dɑˈdɑn//dæˈdæn/

proper noun

An island of Lieyu, Kinmen County, Taiwan.

Scrabble 7

Meanings

proper noun

alternative Tatan · alternative Taitan

  1. An island of Lieyu, Kinmen County, Taiwan.

    Visits to Dadan, a Taiwan-held island off the coast of China and a major battleground during the Cold War, proved an instant hit following the start of tour bookings earlier this week.

    2019 February 16, “Tours to Dadan Island prove a big hit with Taiwanese”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 20 Jun 2022, Society
    2 more examples

    Mainland China and Taiwan do not border each other by land; they face each other across a 140-km-wide ocean strait. Taiwan-held Dadan Island sits 2 km away from Xiamen. Xiamenese can use binoculars to observe their kinfolk on Dadan Island, with whom they have traditionally intermarried (Mellor, 1993).

    2005, Xiangming Chen, “The Greater Southeast China Subregion”, in As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, pages 91–92

    Jinmen, known historically as Quemoy, has had some success building a tourist industry on the back of its even closer link to the mainland, close enough that Taiwanese defectors were said to have swum from there to the Chinese city of Xiamen. The military is also in the process of handing over to civilian control other islands that are now restricted zones, including small islets named Erdan and Dadan.

    2013 June 3, Sarah Mishkin, “Taiwan’s small islands turn to tourism to stay afloat”, in Financial Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Apr 2022, Asia-Pacific

Origin

  1. Mandarin大膽
  2. EnglishDadan

From Mandarin 大膽 (Dàdǎn).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Cantonese 大膽 /大胆
  • 大膽 /大胆 (daai⁶ daam²)island
Chinese Mandarin 大膽 /大胆
  • 大膽 /大胆 (Dàdǎn)island

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

Dadan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dadan

MLA

“Dadan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dadan. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Dadan,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Dadan.

Source: Dadan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.