Meaning of 烂
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- soft; mushy
- well-cooked and soft
- to rot; to decompose
- rotten
- worn out
- chaotic; messy
- utterly; thoroughly
- crappy; bad
How to use 烂
烂 describes food cooked very soft, things that are rotten or worn out, and in casual speech anything that is just bad. It also works after verbs to mean thoroughly, as in 煮烂 (zhǔlàn) cook until soft. Example: 这部电影太烂了。(Zhè bù diànyǐng tài làn le.) This movie is really bad.
烂 has the fire radical 火 on the left and 兰 (lán) on the right, which hints at the sound. Picture food left over the fire too long until it turns soft, mushy, and finally falls apart.
Common mistake: Learners often write 栏 (lán, railing) or 拦 (lán, to block) by mistake, since all share 兰. Remember that only 烂 has fire 火, and it is fourth tone làn, not second tone lán.
烂 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.
烂 làn · soft · 9 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 烂.
| 腐烂 | fǔlàn | to rot; to putrefy |
| 灿烂 | cànlàn | to glitter; brilliant |
| 破烂 | pòlàn | worn-out; dilapidated; tattered; ragged; (coll.) rubbish; junk |
| 烂摊子 | làntānzi | terrible mess; shambles |
| 烂透 | làntòu | rotten to the core |
| 烂醉 | lànzuì | dead drunk; completely drunk |
| 砸烂 | zálàn | to smash |
| 烂泥 | lànní | mud; mire |
| 烂醉如泥 | lànzuìrúní | (idiom) to be dead drunk; to be plastered |
| 撕烂 | sīlàn | to tear up; to tear to pieces |
| 稀巴烂 | xībālàn | smashed up; broken into pieces |
| 焦头烂额 | jiāotóulàn'é | lit. badly burned about the head (from trying to put out a fire) (idiom); fig. hard-presse |
Questions about 烂
What does 烂 mean?
烂 (làn) means "soft; mushy; well-cooked and soft" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 烂?
烂 is made of 1 character: 烂 (9 strokes). That is 9 strokes in total.
Is 烂 an HSK word?
Yes. 烂 is on the HSK 5 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 烂 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 烂 is written 爛.
Why does 灿烂 mean brilliant if 烂 means rotten?
In 灿烂 (cànlàn), 烂 keeps an older sense of bright and dazzling, linked to the fire radical. It is a fixed word, so it carries no negative meaning at all, as in 阳光灿烂 (yángguāng cànlàn) bright sunshine.
Is calling something 烂 rude?
Saying 很烂 (hěn làn) about a movie, game, or someone's skills is casual and fairly blunt, similar to crappy in English. Among friends it is fine, but in polite settings 不太好 (bú tài hǎo) sounds softer.