烫 (tàng): scalding hot

Meanings

1 scalding hot
2 boiling hot
3 to burn (from heat)
4 to iron (clothes)
5 to perm (hair)

Characters

烫

tàng

scalding; to iron; to perm

Examples

小心，水很烫！

Xiǎoxīn, shuǐ hěn tàng!

Be careful, the water is scalding hot!

她去烫头发了。

Tā qù tàng tóufa le.

She went to get a perm.

我被烫了一下。

Wǒ bèi tàng le yīxià.

I got burned (by something hot).

Tips

usage

烫 specifically means hot enough to burn on contact. For warm/hot weather use 热 (rè) instead. 烫 also means to iron clothes or perm hair.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire

Bottom fire radical (Kangxi #86) — pictograph of flames rising. The indexing radical, marking 烫 firmly in the heat family with 烧 to burn, 热 hot, 煮 to boil, 焦 charred. Together with 汤 above, the picture is hot water set over a fire: the literal scene of scalding.

phonetic

汤 tāng

soup; hot water

Top 汤 supplies the sound (tāng → tàng, just a tone shift) and a strong semantic hint. 汤 itself is hot water or soup — boiling liquid hot enough to burn. With fire underneath, the picture is unmistakable: water heated by fire until it scalds. Phonetic and meaning reinforce each other unusually well here.