HSK 3 · Food

渴 kě “thirsty” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 渴 means

  1. thirsty

How to say 渴

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale渴kě3rd tone, dipping

渴 in a sentence

  1. 我很渴。

    Wǒ hěn kě.

    I’m very thirsty.

    Sentence #916645 from Tatoeba

  2. 你的狗看起来口渴了。

    Nǐ de gǒu kànqǐlai kǒukě le.

    Your dog looks thirsty.

    Sentence #1787994 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 觉得渴了就喝点。

    Juéde kě le jiù hē diǎn.

    If you feel thirsty, have something to drink.

    Sentence #5911743 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 渴 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 渴 (kě) with each of its parts in a different colour
渴kěthirsty
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
  • 曷what · héSound part

氵 hints at the meaning (water); 曷 (hé) hints at the sound. Compare it with kě.

How to write 渴

渴 12 strokes

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

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

Words related to 渴

Words with 渴

渴望kěwàng · to long for

More words: Food & Drink

饱bǎo · eat until full菜单càidān · menu蛋糕dàngāo · cake饿è · hungry面包miànbāo · bread啤酒píjiǔ · beer甜tián · sweet香蕉xiāngjiāo · banana

FAQs

渴 (kě) means “thirsty”. It is an HSK 3 word.
Say it kě: kě with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 渴 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ke with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 渴 from the suggestions. Typing ke into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
渴 is an HSK 3 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.