(): hot, to heat

() is a Chinese character meaning “hot, to heat.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #606 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fire. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (diǎn, point, o'clock), (rán, nature, thus), (zhào, shine, according to).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. hot, to heat

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿱执灬 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
adjectiverè qíngcordial3
verbrè àito love ardently5
线nounrè xiànhotline (communications link)6
adjectiverè lièenthusiastic5
nounrè ménpopular6
adjective/verb/nounrè naobustling with noise and excitement4
adjectiverè xīnenthusiastic5
nounrè liàngheat5
verbjiā rèto heat5
adjectiveyán rèblistering hot6
nounrè diǎnhot spot6
nounrè dùlevel of heat6
verbrè yìto discuss passionately6
nounrè shuǐ qìwater heater6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
rè gǒuhot dog (loanword)
kuáng rèzealotry
qīn rèaffectionate
rè shuǐhot water
rè shēnto warm up (sports)
rè dàithe tropics
huǒ rèfiery
fā rèto have a high temperature
rè làngheat wave
rè liànto fall head over heels in love
rè cháowave of enthusiasm
rè qièfervent
rè qìsteam
rè néngheat energy
rè lìheat
100
Total compounds
65
As first character
35
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 65 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 0 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.

dài
0.700143,826 co-occurrences
0.56851,624 co-occurrences
zhōng
0.5507,374 co-occurrences
bào
0.54238,328 co-occurrences
fēng
0.53642,660 co-occurrences
湿shī
0.5308,484 co-occurrences
nào
0.5243,697 co-occurrences
kuáng
0.4729,282 co-occurrences
0.46927,372 co-occurrences
xuán
0.46114,280 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

chènrèdǎtiěHSK 6+

strike while the iron is hot

phrase
dǎtiěchènrèHSK 6+

strike while the iron is hot

phrase
dì rè diàn zhànHSK 2+

geothermal electric power station

phrase
jiǔ hān ěr rèHSK 7+

tipsy and merry (idiom)

phrase
lěngcháorèfěngHSK 7+

burning satire and freezing irony; to sarcastically ridicule

phrase
rèdǎo xiàoyìngHSK 6+

short for 城市熱島效應/城市热岛效应 (chéngshì rèdǎo xiàoyìng, “heat island effect”)

noun
rèlèiyíngkuàngHSK 7+

to be moved to tears

phrase
rèqìténgténgHSK 7+

steaming hot; seething with activity

phrase
rèqíngyángyìHSK 7+

brimming with enthusiasm; ebullient

phrase
SàlārèwōHSK 7+

Sarajevo (the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina)

mǎnqiāngrèchénHSK 6+

to be full of enthusiasm; to be filled with ardor and sincerity

phrase

Showing 11 of 12 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个夏天特别,空调销量比去年同期增长了百分之三十。

Zhè gè xiàtiān tèbié rè, kōngtiáo xiāoliàng bǐ qùnián tóngqī zēngzhǎng le bǎifēnzhī sānshí.

This summer is especially hot, and air conditioner sales have increased by thirty percent compared to the same period last year.

百度新闻Feb 2026

黄金消费火、春节不打烊,电商人一周三飞

huáng jīn xiāo fèi huǒ rè , chūn jié bù dǎ 烊 , diàn shāng rén yī zhōu sān fēi

Gold consumption is hot, the Spring Festival is not closed, and e-commerce people fly three times a week

百度新闻Feb 2026

机器人春晚PK赛:闹之余,多想三个问题 | 视频

jī qì rén chūn wǎn sài rè nào zhī yú , duō xiǎng sān gě wèn tí shì pín

Robot Spring Festival PK Match: Three Questions to Ask While You're Watching | VIDEO

百度新闻Feb 2026

一杯水赠归人 一句感谢显温情 环兰高速人:点...

yī bēi rè shuǐ zèng guī rén yī gōu gǎn xiè xiǎn wēn qíng huán lán gāo sù rén diǎn . . .

A cup of hot water to the returnees A word of thanks to show the warmth of the Huanlan high-speed people: point...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春晚引爆机器人潮!上百股或受益,节前逾20亿抢筹..

chūn wǎn yǐn bào jī qì rén rè cháo ! shǎng bǎi gǔ huò shòu yì , jié qián yú yì qiāng chóu . .

Spring Festival Gala Sparks Robot Boom! Hundreds of Stocks May Benefit, Over 2 Billion Yuan Snapped Up Before the Holiday...

百度新闻Feb 2026

首次举办新春市集,大学路迎来“最闹的春节”

shǒu cì jǔ bàn xīn chūn shì jí , dà xué lù yíng lái zuì rè nào de chūn jié

University Road Hosts Its First-Ever Spring Festival Market, Marking Its "Livelyest Lunar New Year"

Tatoeba

明天会不会又很

Míngtiān huìbùhuì yòu hěn rè?

Will it be hot again tomorrow?

Tatoeba

为什么这两天一天比一天

Wèishénme zhè liǎng tiān yī tiān bǐ yī tiān rè?

Why has it been getting hotter and hotter these last two days?

Tatoeba

这牛奶是冷的还是的?

Zhè niúnǎi shì lěng de háishi rè de?

Is the milk cold, or still hot?

Tatoeba

水袋真是冬日必备好物!

Rèshuǐdài zhēnshi dōng rì bìbèi hǎowù!

A hot water bottle is something you must buy to prepare for the winter months.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 热 (rè) mean in Chinese?
热 (rè) primarily means "hot, to heat." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #606 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 热 and 寒?
热 (rè) and 寒 (hán) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 热 (hot) vs 寒 (cold).
How many strokes does 热 have?
热 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 热?
The radical associated with 热 is 灬 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 热?
热 is composed of: 执 (phonetic), 灬 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱执灬 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 热?
Common words with 热 include: 热情 (rè qíng, "cordial"); 热狗 (rè gǒu, "hot dog (loanword)"); 热爱 (rè ài, "to love ardently"); 热线 (rè xiàn, "hotline (communications link)"); 狂热 (kuáng rè, "zealotry"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 热 (rè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation rè: 惹 (to provoke). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 热 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 热 and the traditional form is 熱.

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.