hàn
noun HSK 5 #3,777

Meanings

  1. 1 sweat; perspiration

Examples

HSK 3
Tā pǎo wán bù hòu mǎntóu-dàhàn.
He was drenched in sweat after running.
HSK 3
Jǐnzhāng de shǒuxīn dōu chūhàn le.
So nervous that my palms were sweating.
HSK 5
Tiān tài rè le, wǒ chū le yīshēn hàn.
It's too hot, I'm covered in sweat.

Tips

usage
出汗 (chū hàn) means 'to sweat.' 汗水 (hànshuǐ) is a more literary/emphatic form. 冷汗 (lěnghàn) means 'cold sweat' (from fear or nervousness).
memory
The water radical on the left, because sweat is liquid. The right side (gān, dry) - your body tries to dry itself by sweating.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left - the side-form of . Sweat is the body's water, so the water radical groups with the family of bodily fluids and water-words: (tears), (juice), (saliva), (liquid).
phonetic
gān
dry (here phonetic)
Provides the sound (gān → hàn, with shift). means dry but here functions primarily as phonetic. Some learners find a memorable irony in water + dry = sweat - the body's water that ends up dried on the skin. Same phonetic in (gān, pole), (gān, liver), 竿 (gān, bamboo pole).

Stroke Order

hàn