HSK 6 · Nature

灾难 zāinàn “disaster” in Chinese

Traditional 災難

What 灾难 means

  1. disaster
  2. catastrophe

How to say 灾难

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale灾zāi1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale难nàn4th tone, falling

灾难 in a sentence

  1. 那是灾难。

    Nà shì zāinàn.

    That was a disaster.

    Sentence #6111875 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters

  2. 地震带来了灾难。

    Dìzhèn dàilái le zāinàn.

    The earthquake brought disaster.

    Sentence #13894739 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 完美主义很容易酿成灾难。

    Wánměi zhǔyì hěn róngyì niàngchéng zāinàn.

    Perfectionism can easily lead to disaster.

    Sentence #12332118 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 灾难 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 灾 (zāi) with each of its parts in a different colour
灾zāidisaster; calamity
  • 宀roof · mián
  • 火fire · huǒ
The character 难 (nán) with each of its parts in a different colour
难nàndisaster
  • 又again · yòu
  • 隹short-tailed bird · zhuī

Memory aidPicture a hand 又 trying to catch a bird 隹: difficult.

How to write 灾难

灾 7 strokes · 难 10 strokes

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

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

Words related to 灾难

Words with 灾

灾害zāihài · calamity

Words with 难

难nán · difficult难过nánguò · be grieved难题nántí · difficult problem难看nánkàn · ugly难听nántīng · unpleasant to hear困难kùnnan · difficult难受nánshòu · to feel unwell难道nándào · don’t tell me …难免nánmiǎn · hard to avoid难怪nánguài · (it’s) no wonder (that…)

More words: Nature & Environment

岩石yánshí · rock翼yì · wing蕴藏yùncáng · to hold in store宇宙yǔzhòu · universe杂交zájiāo · to hybridise噪音zàoyīn · noise照耀zhàoyào · to shine on沼泽zhǎozé · swamp

FAQs

灾难 (zāinàn) means “disaster” or “catastrophe”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it zāinàn: zāi with a 1st tone, then nàn with a 4th 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, 灾难 is written 災難. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zainan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 灾难 from the suggestions. Typing zainan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
灾难 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.