HSK 3.0 Level 3 · Things

电 diàn “electricity” in Chinese

Traditional 電

What 电 means

  1. electricity
  2. electric
  3. power
  4. lightning
  5. electric (bound form)
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to get (or give) an electric shock
  • phone call or telegram etc
  • to send via telephone or telegram etc

How to say 电

  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale电diàn4th tone, falling

电 in a sentence

  1. 电很有用。

    Diàn hěn yǒuyòng.

    Electricity is very useful.

    Sentence #1397334 from Tatoeba

  2. 我让我妹妹用我的新电脑。

    Wǒ ràng wǒ mèimei yòng wǒ de xīn diànnǎo.

    I let my sister use my new computer.

    Sentence #390519 from Tatoeba

  3. 我们能在哪儿打电话？

    Wǒmen néng zài nǎr dǎ diànhuà?

    Where can we make a phone call?

    Sentence #501694 from Tatoeba

How 电 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 电 (diàn) with each of its parts in a different colour
电diànlightning
  • 曰say · yuē
  • 乚second (cyclical) form of 乙 · yǐ

Memory aidSimplified from 電: lightning under the rain 雨: electricity.

How to write 电

电 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 电

Words with 电

电脑diànnǎo · computer电视diànshì · television电影diànyǐng · movie电话diànhuà · telephone打电话dǎ diànhuà · to make a phone call电影院diànyǐngyuàn · cinema电梯diàntī · lift电子书diànzǐshū · e-book电子邮件diànzǐ yóujiàn · email电台diàntái · radio station

More words: Things & Objects

书包shūbāo · schoolbag药店yàodiàn · pharmacy足球zúqiú · football声shēng · sound鞋xié · shoe纸zhǐ · paper名单míngdān · list of names相机xiàngjī · camera

FAQs

电 (diàn) means “electricity” or “electric”. It is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word.
Say it diàn: diàn 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, 电 is written 電. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type dian with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 电 from the suggestions. Typing dian into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
电 is an HSK 3.0 Level 3 word in the official 2021 syllabus, and it is on our HSK 3.0 Band 4 word list. It is not on the older 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.