HSK 5 · Family

人类 rénlèi “humanity” in Chinese

Traditional 人類

What 人类 means

  1. humanity
  2. human race
  3. mankind

How to say 人类

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale人rén2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale类lèi4th tone, falling

人类 in a sentence

  1. 音乐是人类共同的语言。

    Yīnyuè shì rénlèi gòngtóng de yǔyán.

    Music is the common language of humanity.

    Sentence #10272583 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 狗是人类最好的朋友。

    Gǒu shì rénlèi zuì hǎo de péngyou.

    The dog is man’s best friend.

    Sentence #1235591 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 没有水，人类就活不下去。

    Méiyǒu shuǐ, rénlèi jiù huó bu xiàqu.

    Humans can’t live without water.

    Sentence #13549461 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 人类 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 人 (rén) drawn as one shape
人rénperson; people

人 is a single shape of 2 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

Memory aidA person walking, seen from the side: two legs.

The character 类 (lèi) with each of its parts in a different colour
类lèikind; type; class; category
  • 米rice · mǐ
  • 大big · dà

How to write 人类

人 2 strokes · 类 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

人类 (rénlèi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 人类 (rénlèi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 人类

Words with 人

人rén · person家人jiārén · family member男人nánrén · man女人nǚrén · woman别人biéren · other people客人kèrén · guest有人yǒurén · someone人们rénmen · people大人dàren · adult老人lǎorén · old person

Words with 类

类型lèixíng · type种类zhǒnglèi · kind类似lèisì · similar

More words: People, Body & Health

女士nǚshì · lady青春qīngchūn · youth青少年qīngshàonián · adolescent娶qǔ · to take a wife人生rénshēng · life (one’s time on earth)人物rénwù · figure身份shēnfèn · identity双方shuāngfāng · both sides

FAQs

人类 (rénlèi) means “humanity” or “human race”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it rénlèi: rén with a 2nd tone, then lèi with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 人类 is written 人類. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type renlei with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 人类 from the suggestions. Typing renlei into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
人类 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.