tóng
adjective #97,421

Meanings

  1. 1 red
  2. 2 vermilion

Characters

Examples

Zhāoyáng bǎ yúncai rǎn de tóng hóng.
The morning sun dyed the clouds a fiery red.
红彤彤晚霞铺满西边天空
Hóngtōngtōng de wǎnxiá pùmǎn le xībian de tiānkōng.
Red clouds spread across the western sky.

Tips

usage
mostly survives in the reduplicated intensifier 红彤彤 (hóngtōngtōng, 'bright red') and in given names. It is rarely a standalone adjective in modern speech.
memory
The on the right is the 'bristle/decoration' radical — picture three brush strokes painting something (, cinnabar/red) on the left. Red paint applied with a brush: .

Components

radical
shān
bristles; decorative strokes
is the 'bristles/ornament' radical, three downward strokes suggesting brush hairs or decorative lines. Here it shows the red being painted or brushed on.
semantic
dān
cinnabar; red
means cinnabar, the red mineral pigment. It supplies the color sense — the whole character is about the red color of cinnabar applied as paint.

Stroke Order

tóng