HSK 6 · Nature

棉花 miánhua “cotton” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 棉花 means

  1. cotton

How to say 棉花

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale棉mián2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the neutral tone: short and light, with no contour of its own花huaneutral tone, light and short

Grey pinyin is a neutral tone: say it short and light. More on the neutral tone

棉花 in a sentence

  1. 这件衬衫是用棉花做的。

    Zhè jiàn chènshān shì yòng miánhua zuò de.

    This shirt is made of cotton.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 她用棉花轻轻擦了擦伤口。

    Tā yòng miánhua qīngqīng cā le cā shāngkǒu.

    She gently dabbed the cut with cotton wool.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 棉花 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 棉 (mián) with each of its parts in a different colour
棉miángeneric term for cotton or kapok
  • 木tree · mù
  • 帛silk · bó
The character 花 (huā) with each of its parts in a different colour
花huāflowerlight in 棉花
  • 艹grass form of 艸 · cǎo
  • 化to change · huà

Memory aidA plant 艹 with 化 (huà) for the sound: a flower.

How to write 棉花

棉 12 strokes · 花 7 strokes

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

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

Words related to 棉花

Words with 花

花huā · flower花园huāyuán · garden开花kāihuā · to bloom花生huāshēng · peanut花瓣huābàn · petal花蕾huālěi · flower bud烟花爆竹yānhuābàozhú · fireworks and firecrackers锦上添花jǐnshàngtiānhuā · to make something even better

More words: Nature & Environment

枯萎kūwěi · to wither茂盛màoshèng · lush蚂蚁mǎyǐ · ant萌芽méngyá · to sprout排放páifàng · to discharge品种pǐnzhǒng · variety瀑布pùbù · waterfall晴朗qínglǎng · sunny

FAQs

棉花 (miánhua) means “cotton”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it miánhua: mián with a 2nd tone, then hua with a neutral tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 棉花 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type mianhua with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 棉花 from the suggestions. Typing mianhua into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
棉花 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 written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.