(rán): to burn, to ignite, to light

(rán) is a Chinese character meaning “to burn.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1543 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fire. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (huǒ, fire), (dēng, lamp, light), (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to burn
  2. to ignite
  3. to light

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火然 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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
verbrán shāoto ignite5
nounrán liàofuel6
verbdiǎn ránto ignite6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
rán yóufuel oil
zì ránspontaneous combustion
rán qǐto ignite
rán shāo dànfire bomb
yǐn ránto ignite
rán qìfuel gas (coal gas, natural gas, methane etc)
kě ráninflammable
rán fàngto light
yì rán wùflammable substance
sǐ huī fù ránlit. ashes burn once more (idiom)
rán diǎnto ignite
nèi rán jīinternal combustion engine
kě rán xìngflammable
yì rán wù pǐnflammable articles
rán méi zhī jílit. the fire burns one's eyebrows (idiom)
54
Total compounds
52
As first character
19
As last character
30
As middle character

appears in 54 compound words: 52 as the first character, 19 as the last, and 30 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.

shāo
0.68332,362 co-occurrences
liào
0.597121,286 co-occurrences
yóu
0.58538,616 co-occurrences
méi
0.56913,695 co-occurrences
hào
0.4765,784 co-occurrences
zhú
0.458768 co-occurrences
huǒ
0.45821,264 co-occurrences
0.45613,926 co-occurrences
0.4481,230 co-occurrences
xiāng
0.4354,350 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

ránméizhījíHSK 6+

extreme urgency

phrase
rán qì lún jīHSK 6+

gas turbine

phrase
sǐhuīfùránHSK 5+

to revive; to resurge; to be renascent

phrase
zhǔdòuránqíHSK 5+

to have a fratricidal strife; to have a fight between one's own men

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

篝火烧得很旺,大家围坐在一起取暖。

Gōuhuǒ ránshāo de hěn wàng, dàjiā wéi zuò zài yīqǐ qǔnuǎn.

The bonfire is burning brightly, and everyone sits around to keep warm.

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

年初八拜天公是否可放爆竹 胡栋强促倪可敏交代

nián chū bā bài tiān gōng shì fǒu kě rán fàng bào zhú hú dòng qiáng cù 倪 kě mǐn jiāo dài

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, whether it is possible to set off firecrackers Hu Dong forced Ni Kemin to explain

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|网球传奇齐聚上海,精彩球技点新春佳节

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng wǎng qiú chuán qí qí jù shàng hǎi , jīng cǎi qiú jì diǎn rán xīn chūn jiā jié

Tennis legends gathered in Shanghai, and their wonderful skills ignited the Spring Festival

百度新闻Feb 2026

一环内禁!云岩区春节期间烟花爆竹禁限放区域、时间...

yī huán nèi jīn rán ! yún yán qū chūn jié qī jiān yān huā bào zhú jīn xiàn fàng qū yù , shí jiān . . .

No combustion in the first ring! During the Spring Festival in Yunyan District, fireworks and firecrackers are prohibited and restricted, and the time...

百度新闻Feb 2026

...中国年活力满格 “创新场景+券包优惠”点..

. . . zhōng guó nián huó lì mǎn gé chuàng xīn chǎng jǐng quàn bāo yōu huì diǎn rán . .

... The Chinese New Year is full of vigor and "innovative scenes + coupon packages and offers" to ignite ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

宁远县城管局:禁禁放不松懈 守护平安祥和年

nìng yuǎn xiàn chéng guǎn jú jīn rán jīn fàng bù sōng xiè shǒu hù píng ān xiáng hé nián

Ningyuan County Urban Management Bureau: Maintaining Vigilance in Fireworks and Fireworks Ban Safeguarding a Peaceful and Harmonious New Year

Tatoeba

褐煤是一种化石料。

Hèméi shì yīzhǒng huàshíránliào.

Lignite is a fossil fuel.

Tatoeba

硫磺烧着蓝色的火焰。

Liúhuáng ránshāo zhe lánsè de huǒyàn.

Sulfur burns with a blue flame.

Tatoeba

这个取暖装置用柴油作为料。

Zhège qǔnuǎn zhuāngzhì yòng cháiyóu zuòwéi ránliào.

This heating equipment uses diesel as fuel.

Tatoeba

煤和天然气是天然料。

Méi hé tiānránqì shì tiānrán ránliào.

Coal and natural gas are natural fuels.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced rán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 燃 (rán) mean in Chinese?
燃 (rán) primarily means "to burn." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1543 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 燃 and 潦?
燃 (rán) and 潦 (lǎo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 燃 (light) vs 潦 (heavy).
How many strokes does 燃 have?
燃 is written with 16 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 燃?
The radical associated with 燃 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 燃?
燃 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 然 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火然 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 燃?
Common words with 燃 include: 燃烧 (rán shāo, "to ignite"); 燃料 (rán liào, "fuel"); 点燃 (diǎn rán, "to ignite"); 燃油 (rán yóu, "fuel oil"); 自燃 (zì rán, "spontaneous combustion"). There are over 54 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 燃 (rán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation rán: 然 (nature, thus), 染 (to dye). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 燃 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 燃 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.