HSK 6 · Adjectives

残忍 cánrěn “cruel” in Chinese

Traditional 殘忍

What 残忍 means

  1. cruel
  2. merciless
  3. ruthless

How to say 残忍

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale残cán2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale忍rěn3rd tone, dipping

残忍 in a sentence

  1. 太残忍了。

    Tài cánrěn le.

    That’s so cruel.

    Sentence #2332952 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 怪物的笑容很残忍。

    Guàiwu de xiàoróng hěn cánrěn.

    The monster’s smile was cruel.

    Sentence #9963094 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 我从来没想到他能做到那么残忍的事。

    Wǒ cónglái méi xiǎngdào tā néng zuòdào nàme cánrěn de shì.

    I never thought he was capable of doing something so cruel.

    Sentence #747640 from Tatoeba

How 残忍 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 残 (cán) with each of its parts in a different colour
残cánto destroy
  • 歹death · dǎiMeaning part
  • 戋small · jiānSound part

歹 hints at the meaning (death); 戋 (jiān) hints at the sound. Compare it with cán.

The character 忍 (rěn) with each of its parts in a different colour
忍rěnto bear
  • 刃edged tool · rèn
  • 心heart · xīn

How to write 残忍

残 9 strokes · 忍 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 残忍

Words with 残

残疾cánjí · disability残留cánliú · to remain摧残cuīcán · to ruin残酷cánkù · cruel

Words with 忍

忍不住rěnbuzhù · cannot help忍耐rěnnài · to be patient忍受rěnshòu · to bear容忍róngrěn · to tolerate

More words: Adjectives

苍白cāngbái · pale仓促cāngcù · hurried残酷cánkù · cruel灿烂cànlàn · brilliant草率cǎoshuài · careless嘈杂cáozá · noisy昌盛chāngshèng · prosperous畅通chàngtōng · unimpeded

FAQs

残忍 (cánrěn) means “cruel” or “merciless”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it cánrěn: cán with a 2nd tone, then rěn with a 3rd 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, 残忍 is written 殘忍. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type canren with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 残忍 from the suggestions. Typing canren into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
残忍 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.