HSK 6 · Verbs

染 rǎn “to dye” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 染 means

  1. to dye
  2. to catch (an illness)
  3. to catch (a disease)
  4. to acquire (bad habits etc)
  5. to contaminate
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • to add colour washes to a painting

How to say 染

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale染rǎn3rd tone, dipping

染 in a sentence

  1. 布被染成鲜红。

    Bù bèi rǎn chéng xiānhóng.

    The cloth was dyed bright red.

    Sentence #9972833 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 一直染发太麻烦了。

    Yìzhí rǎnfà tài máfan le.

    Dyeing my hair all the time is too much hassle.

    Sentence #8851549 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 你也许会染上疾病。

    Nǐ yěxǔ huì rǎn shàng jíbìng.

    You might catch a disease.

    Sentence #1424317 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 染 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 染 (rǎn) with each of its parts in a different colour
染rǎnto dye
  • 氿spring · guǐ
  • 木tree · mù

How to write 染

染 9 strokes

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

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

Words related to 染

Words with 染

污染wūrǎn · to pollute传染chuánrǎn · to infect感染gǎnrǎn · to infect

More words: Common Verbs

确保quèbǎo · to ensure确立quèlì · to establish缺席quēxí · to be absent屈服qūfú · to yield扰乱rǎoluàn · to disturb惹祸rěhuò · to cause trouble容纳róngnà · to hold揉róu · to rub

FAQs

染 (rǎn) means “to dye” or “to catch (an illness)”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it rǎn: rǎn with a 3rd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 染 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type ran with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 染 from the suggestions. Typing ran into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
染 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

Turn words into conversations

A dictionary gives you the words. A native teacher shows you how to use them. Start with a free 30-minute intro call.

Book a free intro call

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.