Meaning of 蓝
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- blue
- indigo plant
- surname Lan
How to use 蓝
On its own, 蓝 works as an adjective in set phrases, but in everyday speech people usually say 蓝色 (lánsè) for the color. It also appears in many compounds like 蓝天 (lán tiān) and 蓝莓 (lánméi). Example: 我喜欢蓝色的衣服。(Wǒ xǐhuan lánsè de yīfu.) I like blue clothes.
蓝 has the grass radical 艹 on top, because the word also names the indigo plant that people used to make blue dye. Picture grass growing over a basin of dye, and you get the color blue.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 蓝 (lán, blue) with 篮 (lán, basket), as in 篮球 (lánqiú, basketball). They sound the same, but 篮 has the bamboo radical ⺮ on top, while 蓝 has the grass radical 艹.
蓝 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.
蓝 lán · blue · 13 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 蓝.
Questions about 蓝
What does 蓝 mean?
蓝 (lán) means "blue; indigo plant" and is used as a adjective.
How do you write 蓝?
蓝 is made of 1 character: 蓝 (13 strokes). That is 13 strokes in total.
Is 蓝 an HSK word?
Yes. 蓝 is on the HSK 2 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 蓝 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 蓝 is written 藍.
Does 蓝 cover both blue and green like some older Chinese color words?
No. In modern Chinese, 蓝 means blue, and green is 绿 (lǜ). The older word 青 (qīng) can cover blue, green, or even black depending on context, but 蓝 is clearly blue.
What does 蓝领 mean, and is there a white-collar version?
蓝领 (lánlǐng) means blue-collar or a blue-collar worker, borrowed from the English idea. The white-collar version is 白领 (báilǐng), and it is very common in everyday Chinese.