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粉

fěn
noun HSK 6 #3,839

Meanings

  1. 1 powder
  2. 2 noodles
  3. 3 pink

Examples

HSK 3
她穿了一条粉红色的裙子。
Tā chuān le yì tiáo fěnhóngsè de qúnzi.
She wore a pink skirt.
HSK 3
我早上吃了一碗米粉。
Wǒ zǎoshang chī le yì wǎn mǐfěn.
I had a bowl of rice noodles this morning.
HSK 5
奶粉的价格最近又上涨了。
Nǎifěn de jiàgé zuìjìn yòu shàngzhǎng le.
The price of milk powder has gone up again recently.

Tips

memory
米 (rice) + 分 (divide) - rice ground into powder

Components

radical
米 mǐ
rice; grain
Left indexing rice radical. Powdered rice was the most common base for both face powder and culinary starch. From this came the generic 'powder' meaning, then 'pale pink' (the colour of rice-powder makeup tinted with rouge), and the noodles made from rice flour. Same family: 粒 (grain), 糖 (sugar), 粥 (porridge), 糕 (cake).
phonetic
分 fēn
to divide; separate
Right component supplies the sound (fēn → fěn, only tone shift) and a strong semantic echo. 分 means 'to divide, separate' - exactly what milling does to grain, breaking it into the smallest particles. So 粉 reads as 'rice divided into tiny pieces' = powder. Same phonetic in 份 (share), 纷 (numerous), 氛 (atmosphere).

Stroke Order

粉 fěn