HSK 5 · Nature

彩虹 cǎihóng “rainbow” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 彩虹 means

  1. rainbow

Measure word 道 dào · 一道彩虹 yí dào cǎihóng

How to say 彩虹

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale彩cǎi3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale虹hóng2nd tone, rising

彩虹 in a sentence

  1. 彩虹是一种自然现象。

    Cǎihóng shì yì zhǒng zìrán xiànxiàng.

    A rainbow is a natural phenomenon.

    Sentence #565438 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 彩虹有七种颜色。

    Cǎihóng yǒu qī zhǒng yánsè.

    A rainbow has seven colours.

    Sentence #4757592 from Tatoeba

  3. 你见到今天早上的彩虹了吗？

    Nǐ jiàndào jīntiān zǎoshang de cǎihóng le ma?

    Did you see the rainbow this morning?

    Sentence #8926999 from Tatoeba

How 彩虹 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 彩 (cǎi) with each of its parts in a different colour
彩cǎicolour
  • 采to collect · cǎiSound part
  • 彡bristle · shānMeaning part

彡 hints at the meaning (bristle); 采 (cǎi) hints at the sound. Compare it with cǎi.

The character 虹 (hóng) with each of its parts in a different colour
虹hóngrainbow
  • 虫insect · chóngMeaning part
  • 工work · gōngSound part

虫 hints at the meaning (insect); 工 (gōng) hints at the sound. Compare it with hóng.

How to write 彩虹

彩 11 strokes · 虹 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 彩虹

Words with 彩

精彩jīngcǎi · wonderful色彩sècǎi · colour彩票cǎipiào · lottery ticket剪彩jiǎncǎi · to cut the ribbon (at an opening ceremony)光彩guāngcǎi · glory

More words: Nature & Environment

岸àn · bank翅膀chìbǎng · wing池塘chítáng · pond大象dàxiàng · elephant地震dìzhèn · earthquake种子zhǒngzi · seed株zhū · (measure word for plants and trees)庄稼zhuāngjia · crops

FAQs

彩虹 (cǎihóng) means “rainbow”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it cǎihóng: cǎi with a 3rd tone, then hóng with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 彩虹 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Use 道 (dào). For example, one rainbow is 一道彩虹 (yí dào cǎihóng).
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type caihong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 彩虹 from the suggestions. Typing caihong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
彩虹 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.