Meaning of 汗
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- perspiration
- sweat
- to be speechless (out of helplessness, embarrassment etc) (Internet slang used as an interjection)
Measure word: 滴,頭|头,身
- see 可汗[ke4 han2], 汗國|汗国[han2 guo2]
How to use 汗
汗 (hàn) means sweat and usually appears in words like 出汗 (chūhàn, to sweat) and 汗水 (hànshuǐ, sweat). For example: 天太热了，我出了很多汗。(Tiān tài rè le, wǒ chū le hěn duō hàn.) It is too hot, I sweated a lot. Online, a single 汗 is used like a sigh to show you are speechless or embarrassed.
汗 has the water radical 氵 on the left and 干 (gān, dry) on the right. Picture water coming out of your skin while you work in the hot, dry sun.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 汗 with 汁 (zhī, juice), which also has 氵 but has 十 on the right instead of 干. Also remember the falling fourth tone hàn, not hán, except in the word 可汗.
汗 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
汗 hàn · perspiration · 6 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 汗.
Questions about 汗
What does 汗 mean?
汗 (hàn) means "perspiration; sweat" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 汗?
汗 is made of 1 character: 汗 (6 strokes). That is 6 strokes in total.
Is 汗 an HSK word?
Yes. 汗 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Why is 可汗 read kèhán and not kěhàn?
可汗 is an old loanword for a khan, a ruler of Central Asian peoples, and it keeps a special reading. In this word 汗 is read hán with the second tone, and 可 is read kè.
What does 汗 mean when people type it in chats?
It works like an interjection showing awkward speechlessness, similar to a sweat drop face. You might see 汗，我又忘了。(Hàn, wǒ yòu wàng le.) Ugh, I forgot again. It is casual Internet slang, so avoid it in formal writing.