涅 (niè): (literary) alunite (formerly used as a black dye), (literary) to dye black

涅 (niè) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) alunite (formerly used as a black dye).” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 圼 (phonetic). It ranks #2703 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 涅 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 河 (hé, river), 海 (hǎi, sea), 洋 (yáng, ocean).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (literary) alunite (formerly used as a black dye)
  2. (literary) to dye black

Etymology & Origin

涅

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵圼 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
康涅狄格proper-nounkāng niè dí géConnecticut, US state
埃涅阿斯proper-nounāi niè ā sīAeneas, hero of Virgil's Aeneid
波洛涅斯bō luò niè sī(name) Polonius
海涅hǎi nièHeinrich Heine (1797-1856), German lyric poet
屠格涅夫proper-nountú gé niè fūIvan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883), Russian novelist
罗斯涅夫luó sī niè fūRosneft (Russian state oil company)
大本涅槃经dà běn niè pán jīng(Buddhism) the Nirvana Sutra
顿涅斯克dùn niè sī kèDonetsk region of W. Ukraine
埃涅阿斯纪āi niè ā sī jìVirgil's Aeneid (epic about the foundation of Rome)
大般涅槃经dà bān niè pán jīng(Buddhism) Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, aka the Nirvana Sutra, of which two major Chinese translations are extant,...
勃列日涅夫proper-nounbó liè rì niè fūLeonid Brezhnev (1906-1982), Soviet statesman, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR 1966-1982
格涅沙gé niè shāGanesha (the elephant-headed God in Hinduism, son of Shiva and Parvati)
入涅rù nièto enter nirvana (Buddhism)
涅白niè báiopaque white
奥腊涅斯塔德ào là niè sī tǎ déOranjestad, capital of Aruba 阿魯巴|阿鲁巴
25
Total compounds
28
As first character
12
As last character
60
As middle character

涅 appears in 25 compound words: 28 as the first character, 12 as the last, and 60 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

埃涅阿斯Āiniè'āsī

Aeneas

顿涅茨克Dùnniècíkè

Donetsk (a city in Ukraine)

康涅狄格Kāngnièdígé

(Mainland China, Hong Kong) Connecticut (a state of the United States)

屠格涅夫Túgénièfū

a transliteration of the Russian surname Тургенев (Turgenev), Turgenev

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing 涅.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

暴雨过后,涅水上涨,淹没了低洼的街道。

bào yǔ guò hòu , niè shuǐ shàng zhǎng , yān méi le dī wā de jiē dào .

After the heavy rain, the Nye River swelled and flooded the low-lying streets.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

上半场还没过半,迪涅禁区内解围时不慎踢倒插上的亚马尔,送给对方一记点球。

shàng bàn chǎng hái méi guò bàn , dí niè jīn qū nèi jiě wéi shí bù shèn tī dǎo chā shàng de yà mǎ ěr , sòng gěi duì fāng yī jì diǎn qiú .

Before the first half was even halfway over, Digne accidentally knocked down Yamal, who was making a run into the box, while clearing the ball, conceding a penalty kick to the opposing team.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

第20分钟,亚马尔在禁区内被迪涅踢倒,西班牙队获得点球机会。

dì 2 0 fēn zhōng , yà mǎ ěr zài jīn qū nèi bèi dí niè tī dǎo , xī bān yá duì huò dé diǎn qiú jī huì .

In the 20th minute, Yamal was brought down by Digne inside the penalty area, and Spain was awarded a penalty kick.

少数派Jun 2026

随后返回第比利斯,经过一整天火车与小巴的辗转,前往上斯瓦涅季地区 Mestia。

suí hòu fǎn huí dì bǐ lì sī , jīng guò yī zhěng tiān huǒ chē yǔ xiǎo bā de niǎn zhuǎn , qián wǎng shàng sī wǎ niè jì dì qū M e s t i a .

We then returned to Tbilisi and, after a full day of traveling by train and minibus, headed to Mestia in the Upper Svaneti region.

少数派Jun 2026

涅瓦大街沿途周边有很多商店。

niè wǎ dà jiē yán tú zhōu biān yǒu hěn duō shāng diàn .

There are many shops along Nevsky Prospect and in the surrounding area.

中国新闻网·体育Jun 2026

总台记者 殷欣:这里是世界超级摩托车锦标赛意大利艾米利亚-罗马涅站的赛场。

zǒng tái jì zhě yīn xīn : zhè lǐ shì shì jiè chāo jí mó tuō chē jǐn biāo sài yì dà lì ài mǐ lì yà luó mǎ niè zhàn de sài chǎng .

CCTV Reporter Yin Xin: We are here at the Emilia-Romagna round of the World Superbike Championship in Italy.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 涅 (niè) mean in Chinese?
涅 (niè) primarily means "(literary) alunite (formerly used as a black dye)." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2703 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 涅 and 白?
涅 (niè) and 白 (bái) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 涅 (black) vs 白 (white).
How many strokes does 涅 have?
涅 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 涅?
The radical associated with 涅 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 涅?
涅 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 圼 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵圼 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 涅?
Common words with 涅 include: 康涅狄格 (kāng niè dí gé, "Connecticut, US state"); 埃涅阿斯 (āi niè ā sī, "Aeneas, hero of Virgil's Aeneid"); 波洛涅斯 (bō luò niè sī, "(name) Polonius"); 海涅 (hǎi niè, "Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), German lyric poet"); 屠格涅夫 (tú gé niè fū, "Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883), Russian novelist"). There are over 25 compound words containing this character.
Is 涅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 涅 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 涅 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.