HSK 6 · Adjectives

灿烂 cànlàn “brilliant” in Chinese

Traditional 燦爛

What 灿烂 means

  1. brilliant
  2. splendid
  3. bright
  4. to glitter

How to say 灿烂

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale灿càn4th tone, falling
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale烂làn4th tone, falling

灿烂 in a sentence

  1. 寒冷干燥，灿烂的阳光，多么美丽的冬日天气！

    Hánlěng gānzào, cànlàn de yángguāng, duōme měilì de dōngrì tiānqì!

    Cold and dry, with brilliant sunshine – what beautiful winter weather!

    Sentence #816881 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 这个世界是灿烂的吗？

    Zhè ge shìjiè shì cànlàn de ma?

    Is the world a splendid place?

    Sentence #1112842 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 灿烂 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 灿 (càn) with each of its parts in a different colour
灿cànglorious
  • 火fire · huǒMeaning part
  • 山mountain · shānSound part

火 hints at the meaning (fire); 山 (shān) hints at the sound. Compare it with càn.

The character 烂 (làn) with each of its parts in a different colour
烂lànsoft; mushy
  • 火fire · huǒMeaning part
  • 兰orchid · lánSound part

火 hints at the meaning (fire); 兰 (lán) hints at the sound. Compare it with làn.

How to write 灿烂

灿 7 strokes · 烂 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 灿烂

Words with 烂

烂làn · rotten腐烂fǔlàn · to rot

More words: Adjectives

不相上下bùxiāngshàngxià · equally matched苍白cāngbái · pale仓促cāngcù · hurried残酷cánkù · cruel残忍cánrěn · cruel草率cǎoshuài · careless嘈杂cáozá · noisy昌盛chāngshèng · prosperous

FAQs

灿烂 (cànlàn) means “brilliant” or “splendid”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it cànlàn: càn with a 4th tone, then làn 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, 灿烂 is written 燦爛. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type canlan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 灿烂 from the suggestions. Typing canlan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
灿烂 is an HSK 6 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.