凉 (liáng): the five Liang of the Sixteen Kingdoms, namely: Former Liang 前涼|前凉 (314-376), Later Liang 後涼|后凉 (386-403), Northern Liang 北涼|北凉 (398-439), Southern Liang 南涼|南凉 (397-414), Western Liang 西涼|西凉 (400-421), cool, cold

凉 (liáng) is a Chinese character meaning “cool.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 冫 (semantic) and 京 (phonetic). It ranks #1571 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 凉 ice. Its radical form 冫 (ice) appears in many related characters such as 冷 (lěng, cold), 净 (jìng, clean), 准 (zhǔn, to allow).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. the five Liang of the Sixteen Kingdoms, namely: Former Liang 前涼|前凉 (314-376), Later Liang 後涼|后凉 (386-403), Northern Liang 北涼|北凉 (398-439), Southern Liang 南涼|南凉 (397-414), Western Liang 西涼|西凉 (400-421)
  2. cool
  3. cold

Etymology & Origin

凉

pictophoneticice

Decomposition: ⿰冫京 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 凉

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
凉快adjectiveliáng kuaipleasantly cool (weather etc)3
着凉verbzháo liángto catch cold5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
凉鞋nounliáng xiésandal
凉爽adjectiveliáng shuǎngcool and refreshing
荒凉adjectivehuāng liángdesolate
凄凉adjectiveqī liángmournful
冰凉adjectivebīng liángice-cold
冲凉verbchōng liáng(dialect) to take a shower
清凉adjectiveqīng liángcool
凉拌verbliáng bànto dress cold food with sauce
凉亭nounliáng tíngpavilion
凉水nounliáng shuǐcool water
风凉话nounfēng liáng huàsneering
阴凉adjectiveyīn liángshady
凉菜liáng càicold dish
乘凉verbchéng liángto enjoy the cool
荫凉yìn liángshady and cool
64
Total compounds
39
As first character
44
As last character
17
As middle character

凉 appears in 64 compound words: 39 as the first character, 44 as the last, and 17 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 凉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

凄qī
0.593312 co-occurrences
爽shuǎng
0.5561,314 co-occurrences
拌bàn
0.502222 co-occurrences
亭tíng
0.4911,004 co-occurrences
锋fēng
0.48211 co-occurrences
荒huāng
0.459678 co-occurrences
州zhōu
0.4464,024 co-occurrences
晾liàng
0.43636 co-occurrences
湿shī
0.423168 co-occurrences
苍cāng
0.423120 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

凉了半截liáng le bàn jiéHSK 6+

felt a chill (in one's heart); (one's heart) sank

phrase
世态炎凉shìtàiyánliángHSK 6+

people are friendly or unfriendly, depending on whether one is successful or not; the hypocrisy of the world

phrase
手搭凉棚shǒu dā liáng péngHSK 7+

to shade one's eyes with one's hand

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing 凉.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

凉字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

liáng zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character "凉" is written is quite unique and has left a deep impression on me.

TvbsFeb 2026

天气/把握最后暖阳!明锋面报到湿凉 228连假雨区再扩大

tiān qì bǎ wò zuì hòu nuǎn yáng ! míng fēng miàn bào dào shī liáng 2 2 8 lián jiǎ yǔ qū zài kuò dà

Weather/Seize the last warm sun! Mingfeng reported that it was wet and cool, and the rain area was expanded again for 228 consecutive holidays

TvbsFeb 2026

...28连假“全台变天”!雨势北往南扩大 湿凉估雷雨开炸

. . . 2 8 lián jiǎ quán tái biàn tiān ! yǔ shì běi wǎng nán kuò dà shī liáng gū léi yǔ kāi zhà

... 28 consecutive holidays "the whole Taiwan has changed the weather"! The rain expands from north to south, and the wet and cool thunderstorms are expected to explode

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

今起多波锋面影响北台降雨转凉 228连假全台下雨

jīn qǐ duō bō fēng miàn yǐng xiǎng běi tái jiàng yǔ zhuǎn liáng 2 2 8 lián jiǎ quán tái xià yǔ

Today, multiple waves of fronts have affected the rain in North Taiwan, and it has rained all over Taiwan during the 228 consecutive holidays

中時新聞網Feb 2026

天气》今变天转湿凉 228连假泡汤 雨最大时间曝

tiān qì jīn biàn tiān zhuǎn shī liáng 2 2 8 lián jiǎ pāo tāng yǔ zuì dà shí jiān pù

Weather" Today's weather turns wet and cool, 228 consecutive holidays are in the hot spring, and the rain is exposed at the maximum time

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

明起多波锋面快闪晴雨凉暖交替 吴德荣:228连假降雨扩大

míng qǐ duō bō fēng miàn kuài shǎn qíng yǔ liáng nuǎn jiāo tì wú dé róng : 2 2 8 lián jiǎ jiàng yǔ kuò dà

Tomorrow, multiple waves of frontal flashes alternating between sunny and rainy Wu Derong: 228 consecutive holiday rains expanded

Tatoeba

今天上午很凉爽,不是吗?

Jīntiān shàngwǔ hěn liángshuǎng, bùshìma?

It's cool this morning, isn't it?

Tatoeba

你不介意我关窗吧?我有点着凉了。

Nǐ bù jièyì wǒ guān chuāng ba? wǒ yǒudiǎn zháoliáng le.

Would you mind if I shut the window? I have a slight cold.

Tatoeba

炎炎夏日来杯冰凉的啤酒,人生一乐也!

Yányán xiàrì lái bēi bīngliáng de píjiǔ, rénshēng yī lè yě!

There is nothing like cold beer on a hot day.

Tatoeba

她衣衫单薄,恐会着凉。

Tā yīshān dānbó, kǒng huì zháoliáng.

She wore such thin clothes that she might well catch a cold.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 冫 (ice) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced liáng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 凉 (liáng) mean in Chinese?
凉 (liáng) primarily means "cool." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1571 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 凉 and 热?
凉 (liáng) and 热 (rè) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 凉 (cold) vs 热 (hot).
How many strokes does 凉 have?
凉 is written with 10 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 凉?
The radical associated with 凉 is 冫 (ice). This radical appears in many characters related to ice.
What are the components of 凉?
凉 is composed of: 冫 (semantic), 京 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰冫京 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 凉?
Common words with 凉 include: 凉快 (liáng kuai, "pleasantly cool (weather etc)"); 凉鞋 (liáng xié, "sandal"); 凉爽 (liáng shuǎng, "cool and refreshing"); 着凉 (zháo liáng, "to catch cold"); 荒凉 (huāng liáng, "desolate"). There are over 64 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 凉 (liáng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation liáng: 谅 (to understand, to forgive), 两 (two), 量 (capacity), 亮 (bright). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 凉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 凉 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 凉 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.