On a twelfth-month morning, the cold air is piercing.
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Literary and descriptive — found in essays, weather reports, and fiction. Strong collocations: 凛冽的寒风 (biting cold wind), 寒气凛冽 (the cold is piercing), 北风凛冽.
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Both characters carry the 冫 (ice) radical — 凛 and 冽 each literally mean 'icy cold'. Two ice radicals stacked in one word = peak cold.
