HSK 1 · Adjectives

冷 lěng “cold” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 冷 means

  1. cold

How to say 冷

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale冷lěng3rd tone, dipping

冷 in a sentence

  1. 今天比昨天冷。

    Jīntiān bǐ zuótiān lěng.

    Today is colder than yesterday.

    Sentence #11837764 from Tatoeba

  2. 今天早上很冷。

    Jīntiān zǎoshang hěn lěng.

    It was very cold this morning.

    Sentence #859151 from Tatoeba

  3. 我觉得冷。

    Wǒ juéde lěng.

    I feel cold.

    Sentence #352054 from Tatoeba

How 冷 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 冷 (lěng) with each of its parts in a different colour
冷lěngcold
  • 冫ice · bīngMeaning part
  • 令command · língSound part

冫 hints at the meaning (ice); 令 (líng) hints at the sound. Compare it with lěng.

How to write 冷

冷 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 冷

Words with 冷

冷静lěngjìng · calm冷淡lěngdàn · cold冷酷lěngkù · cold-hearted冷落lěngluò · to snub冷却lěngquè · to cool down

More words: Adjectives

大dà · big小xiǎo · small多duō · many少shǎo · few热rè · hot高兴gāoxìng · happy漂亮piàoliang · beautiful好看hǎokàn · good-looking

FAQs

冷 (lěng) means “cold”. It is an HSK 1 word, so it is one of the words learners meet early.
Say it lěng: lěng with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 冷 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type leng with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 冷 from the suggestions. Typing leng into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
冷 is an HSK 1 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.