HSK 6 · Media

灵感 línggǎn “inspiration” in Chinese

Traditional 靈感

What 灵感 means

  1. inspiration
  2. creative inspiration

How to say 灵感

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale灵líng2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale感gǎn3rd tone, dipping

灵感 in a sentence

  1. 我灵感枯竭了。

    Wǒ línggǎn kūjié le.

    I’ve run out of inspiration.

    Sentence #9990044 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 她突然有了一个绝妙的灵感。

    Tā tūrán yǒu le yí ge juémiào de línggǎn.

    She suddenly had a brilliant flash of inspiration.

    Sentence #10273870 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 什么是您最大的灵感来源？

    Shénme shì nín zuì dà de línggǎn láiyuán?

    What is your greatest source of inspiration?

    Sentence #502798 from Tatoeba

How 灵感 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 灵 (líng) with each of its parts in a different colour
灵língquick
  • 彐snout · jìSound part
  • 火fire · huǒMeaning part

火 hints at the meaning (fire); 彐 (jì) hints at the sound. Compare it with líng.

The character 感 (gǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
感gǎnto feel
  • 咸all · xián
  • 心heart · xīn

Memory aidHeart 心 with 咸 (xián) for the sound: to feel.

How to write 灵感

灵 7 strokes · 感 13 strokes

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

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

Words related to 灵感

Words with 灵

灵活línghuó · flexible机灵jīling · clever灵敏língmǐn · sensitive心灵xīnlíng · heart灵魂línghún · soul

Words with 感

感冒gǎnmào · catch cold感到gǎndào · to feel感兴趣gǎn xìngqù · be interested in感gǎn · (suffix) sense of …感觉gǎnjué · feeling感谢gǎnxiè · (express) thanks感动gǎndòng · to be moved感情gǎnqíng · emotion感受gǎnshòu · to feel感想gǎnxiǎng · impressions

More words: Media & Arts

刊登kāndēng · to publish (in a newspaper or magazine)刊物kānwù · publication卡通kǎtōng · cartoon栏目lánmù · column论坛lùntán · forum漫画mànhuà · comic媒介méijiè · medium谜语míyǔ · riddle

FAQs

灵感 (línggǎn) means “inspiration” or “creative inspiration”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it línggǎn: líng with a 2nd tone, then gǎn 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, 灵感 is written 靈感. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type linggan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 灵感 from the suggestions. Typing linggan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
灵感 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.