(rèn): annealed, pliable but strong, tough

(rèn) is a Chinese character meaning “annealed.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2821 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, leather. Its radical form (soft leather) appears in many related characters such as (hán, Han, one of the Seven Hero States of the Warring States 戰國七雄|战国七雄).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. annealed
  2. pliable but strong
  3. tough

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticleather

Decomposition: ⿰韦刃 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
rèn dàiligament
jiān rèntough and durable
róu rènpliable and tough
rèn xìngtoughness
jiān rèn bù báfirm and indomitable (idiom)
rèn jìntenacity
rèn pí bùphloem
rèn tǐfirmware
qiáng rènresilient
rèn pí(botany) bast
10
Total compounds
60
As first character
30
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 10 compound words: 60 as the first character, 30 as the last, and 10 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.

lüè
0.67811 co-occurrences
jiān
0.6163,240 co-occurrences
0.547534 co-occurrences
dài
0.5373,876 co-occurrences
róu
0.5211,266 co-occurrences
0.483276 co-occurrences
liè
0.465888 co-occurrences
jìn
0.462174 co-occurrences
téng
0.442198 co-occurrences
qiàn
0.439174 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

jiānrènbùbáHSK 7+

firm and indomitable; persistent and dauntless; persevere in tenacious efforts

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le rèn zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "韧" in the dictionary.

StheadlineMar 2026

...段训练孩子“心理肌肉” 面对风浪仍能保持性!|“苗”想teen开

. . . duàn xùn liàn hái zǐ xīn lǐ jī ròu miàn duì fēng làng réng néng bǎo chí rèn xìng ! miáo xiǎng t e e n kāi

... Duan trains children's "psychological muscles" to maintain resilience in the face of wind and waves! Miao "wants to open teen

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

名家纵论/叫好声背后的性警讯

míng jiā zòng lùn jiào hǎo shēng bèi hòu de rèn xìng jǐng xùn

The resilience warning signs behind the celebrity commentary/applause

InvestingFeb 2026

...l上调劳氏公司目标价至270美元,看好其性表现

. . . l shàng diào láo shì gōng sī mù biāo jià zhì 2 7 0 měi yuán , kàn hǎo qí rèn xìng biǎo xiàn

... l raised Lloyd's target price to $270, optimistic about its resilience performance

InvestingFeb 2026

... 2026财年上半年业绩显示战略转型中的

. . . 2 0 2 6 cái nián shàng bàn nián yè jì xiǎn shì zhàn lüè zhuǎn xíng zhōng de rèn xìng

... The results for the first half of fiscal 2026 show resilience in the strategic transformation

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

陈光复能睁眼、有反应!家属:看见他的生命

chén guāng fù néng zhēng yǎn , yǒu fǎn yīng ! jiā shǔ : kàn jiàn tā de shēng mìng rèn xìng

Chen Guangfu can open his eyes and react! Family: See the resilience of his life

Tatoeba

猎人们用坚的绳网把野生动物捉住了。

Lièrén men yòng jiānrèn de shéng wǎng bǎ yěshēngdòngwù zhuōzhù le.

The hunters captured the wild animal with a strong rope net.

Tatoeba

学好一门外语需要坚不拔的毅力。

Xuéhǎo yī mén wàiyǔ xūyào jiānrènbùbá de yìlì.

Mastering a foreign language involves a lot of patience.

Tatoeba

我凭性克服了困难。

Wǒ píng rènxìng kèfú le kùnnan.

I got over the difficulty with my characteristic tenacity.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the soft leather radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced rèn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 韧 (rèn) mean in Chinese?
韧 (rèn) primarily means "annealed." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2821 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 韧 and 淡?
韧 (rèn) and 淡 (dàn) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 韧 (strong) vs 淡 (weak).
How many strokes does 韧 have?
韧 is written with 7 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 韧?
The radical associated with 韧 is 韦 (soft leather). This radical appears in many characters related to soft leather.
What are the components of 韧?
韧 is composed of: 韦 (semantic), 刃 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰韦刃 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 韧?
Common words with 韧 include: 韧带 (rèn dài, "ligament"); 坚韧 (jiān rèn, "tough and durable"); 柔韧 (róu rèn, "pliable and tough"); 韧性 (rèn xìng, "toughness"); 坚韧不拔 (jiān rèn bù bá, "firm and indomitable (idiom)"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 韧 (rèn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation rèn: 人 (person), 仁 (humane), 忍 (to bear), 认 (to recognize, to admit), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 韧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 韧 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.