TraceHanzi

烬 meaning and stroke order

jìn

Ashes, cinders, embers; remnants

10 strokesRadical 火Traditional 燼
Strokes10
Pinyinjìn
ToneTone 4
Frequency#3,556
Printable worksheet

How to write 烬, stroke by stroke

10 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.

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Meaning of 烬

Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.

jìnfourth tone (falling)
  1. (bound form) cinders; ashes

How 烬 is built

Ideographic (compound meaning) character. A used up 尽 fire 火; 尽 also provides the pronunciation.

huǒfire+jìnto use up

Radical: 火 (fire), shared by 128 characters on this site.

How to remember 烬

烬 is fire 火 on the left plus 尽 (jìn, used up) on the right. When a fire has used itself up, what is left is ashes and embers, and 尽 also tells you the sound jìn.

烬 is a bound form, so it almost never appears alone. You will mostly see it in the word 灰烬 (huījìn, ashes), often in serious or literary writing about fires and destruction. Example: 大火把房子烧成了灰烬。(Dàhuǒ bǎ fángzi shāo chéng le huījìn.) The fire burned the house to ashes.

Common mistake: Learners often write 尽 (jìn, to use up) when they mean 烬, since both are read jìn with the same fourth tone. If the meaning is ashes or cinders, remember to add the fire radical 火 on the left.

Common words with 烬

Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.

WordPinyinMeaningLevel
灰烬huījìnashes

烬 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

我wǒ们men的de学xué校xiào被bèi烧shāo成chéng了le灰huī烬jìn。
Our school was reduced to ashes.
房fáng子zi被bèi大dà火huǒ烧shāo成chéng了le灰huī烬jìn。
The fire reduced the house to ashes.
那nà场chǎng大dà火huǒ把bǎ整zhěng个gè小xiǎo镇zhèn烧shāo成chéng了le灰huī烬jìn。
That fire burned the entire town to ashes.
房fáng子zi烧shāo成chéng了le灰huī烬jìn。
The house burnt to ashes.
消xiāo防fáng员yuán还hái没méi有yǒu赶gǎn到dào，那nà两liǎng幢chuáng大dà厦shà就jiù已yǐ经jīng烧shāo成chéng灰huī烬jìn了le。
Before the firemen were able to arrive, both buildings burned down.

Questions about 烬

How many strokes are in 烬?

烬 is written with 10 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.

What does 烬 mean?

烬 (jìn) means ashes, cinders, embers; remnants. A common word with it is 灰烬 (huījìn), meaning "ashes".

How do you pronounce 烬?

烬 is pronounced jìn, in the fourth tone (falling).

What is the radical of 烬?

The radical of 烬 is 火, which carries the idea of "fire". Dictionaries list 烬 under this radical.

What is the traditional form of 烬?

The traditional form of 烬 is 燼. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; 烬 is the simplified form used in mainland China and Singapore.

Can I use 烬 by itself to say ashes?

Not usually. In everyday Chinese, say 灰 (huī) or 灰烬 (huījìn) for ashes, because 烬 alone sounds incomplete.

Is 灰烬 used only for real fires?

No. It can also be figurative, for hopes or a past life reduced to nothing, as in 希望化为灰烬 (xīwàng huà wéi huījìn), hope turned to ashes.