(hán): cold

(hán) is a Chinese character meaning “cold.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #1289 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 4Radical: roof12 strokesFrequency #1289 structural

Definitions

  1. cold

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjectivehán lěngcold (climate)4
nounhán dōngcold winter6
adjectiveyán hánbitter cold6
nounhán jiàwinter vacation4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shāng hántyphoid
hán shèmy humble home
hán suānwretched
hán xuānto exchange conventional greetings
jī hán jiāo pòbeset by hunger and cold (idiom)
xīn hánbitterly disappointed
dǎn hánto fear
pín hánpoor
hán chenugly
bù hán ér lìlit. not cold, yet shivering (idiom)
tiān hán dì dòng(idiom) bitterly cold
hán máofine hair on the human body
yù hánto defend against the cold
hán yìa nip in the air
hán qìcold air
93
Total compounds
40
As first character
40
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 93 compound words: 40 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 20 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

lěng
0.63630,167 co-occurrences
shǔ
0.5976,144 co-occurrences
dōng
0.52110,994 co-occurrences
xuān
0.520858 co-occurrences
nài
0.5174,332 co-occurrences
pín
0.5163,534 co-occurrences
dēng
0.49415 co-occurrences
0.4861,338 co-occurrences
zào
0.4801,746 co-occurrences
shuāng
0.4471,188 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (18)

齿chúnwángchǐhánHSK 7+

to share a common lot; to share the same fate

phrase
hán fēng cì gǔHSK 6+

bone chilling wind (idiom)

phrase
jīhánjiāopòHSK 6+

cold and hungry at the same time; extremely impoverished

adjective
jiā shì hán wēiHSK 4+

to be of humble origin (idiom)

phrase
pò dǎn hán xīnHSK 5+

to be scared out of one's wits

phrase
pò wǎ hán yáoHSK 7+

lit. broken tiles, cold hearth; fig. a broken-down house; poor and shabby dwelling

phrase
tiānhándìdòngHSK 5+

to be very cold

phrase
wènhánwènnuǎnHSK 4+

to show concern for someone's welfare; to enquire about someone's well-being

phrase
yīpùshíhánHSK 5+

to work hard for one day and do nothing for ten; to work by fits and starts; to act without perseverance or persistence

phrase
yīpù-shíhánHSK 7+

to work for a bit then skimp

phrase
bānzhěn shānghánHSK 7+

typhus

noun
bùhán'érlìHSK 4+

to tremble with fear; to shudder; to shiver all over despite not being cold

phrase

Showing 12 of 18 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

冷的冬天,大家要注意保暖,预防感冒。

Hánlěng de dōngtiān, dàjiā yào zhùyì bǎonuǎn, yùfáng gǎnmào.

In the cold winter, everyone should keep warm and prevent colds.

三立新聞網Feb 2026

范逸臣风守候 田中千绘甜喊很幸福

fàn yì chén hán fēng shǒu hòu tián zhōng qiān huì tián hǎn hěn xìng fú

Fan Yichen waited in the cold wind, and Chie Tanaka shouted sweetly that he was very happy

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...奶”车底发现不明物体 去车行检查才知超心真相

. . . nǎi chē de fā xiàn bù míng wù tǐ qù chē háng jiǎn chá cái zhī chāo xīn hán zhēn xiāng

... Milk" found an unknown object under the car and went to the car dealership to check to find out the truth about the chill

中国军网Feb 2026

中国军校丨今年假,我们这样度过

zhōng guó jūn jiào 丨 jīn nián hán jiǎ , wǒ men zhè yàng dù guò

Chinese Military Academy丨This year's winter vacation, we spent it like this

百度新闻Feb 2026

河北男孩放假每天睡到中午12点,爸爸不许家人打扰....

hé běi nán hái fàng hán jiǎ měi tiān shuì dào zhōng wǔ 1 2 diǎn , bà bà bù xǔ jiā rén dǎ rǎo . . . .

Hebei boy sleeps until 12 noon every day during the winter vacation, and his father does not allow his family to disturb him....

百度新闻Feb 2026

风中的暖流丨贵安新区市场监督管理局为外卖...

hán fēng zhōng de nuǎn liú 丨 guì ān xīn ōu shì chǎng jiān dū guǎn lǐ jú wéi wài mài . . .

Warm Current in the Cold Wind丨Gui'an New District Market Supervision Administration for Takeaway...

Tatoeba

假过得愉快吗?

Nǐ hánjià guòdé yúkuài ma?

Did you enjoy your winter holidays?

Tatoeba

一股流侵袭了欧洲。

Yī gǔ hánliú qīnxí le ōuzhōu.

Extreme cold covered Europe.

Tatoeba

有些植物无法适应冷。

Yǒuxiē zhíwù wúfǎ shìyìng hánlěng.

Some plants cannot adapt themselves to the cold.

Tatoeba

无论外面多么冷,房间始终既舒适又温暖。

Wúlùn wàimiàn duōme hánlěng, fángjiān shǐzhōng jì shūshì yòu wēnnuǎn.

No matter how cold it is outside, the rooms are comfortably heated.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced hán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 寒 (hán) mean in Chinese?
寒 (hán) primarily means "cold." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1289 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 寒 and 热?
寒 (hán) and 热 (rè) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 寒 (cold) vs 热 (hot).
How many strokes does 寒 have?
寒 is written with 12 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 寒?
The radical associated with 寒 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 寒?
寒 is composed of: 宀 (structural), undefined (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 寒?
Common words with 寒 include: 寒冷 (hán lěng, "cold (climate)"); 伤寒 (shāng hán, "typhoid"); 寒舍 (hán shè, "my humble home"); 寒酸 (hán suān, "wretched"); 寒暄 (hán xuān, "to exchange conventional greetings"). There are over 93 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 寒 (hán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation hán: 厂 ("cliff" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 27), occurring in 原, 历, 压 etc), 酣 (intoxicated), 含 (to keep in the mouth), 函 (envelope), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 寒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 寒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.