热
hot
HSK level
- Pinyin
- rè
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Level
- HSK 1
- Strokes
- 10
- Register
- neutral
- In episodes
- 2
Stroke order for 热
热 is written with 10 strokes. The animation replays automatically.
What does 热 mean?
热 (rè) means 'hot' — referring to temperature, whether of the weather, an object, food, or a person who feels warm.
It works exactly like an English adjective but has one key Chinese-grammar feature: predicate adjectives don't need a verb, but they DO usually need an intensifier like 很 (hěn). So 'It's hot' is 很热 (hěn rè, literally 'very hot'), not 是热 — using 是 (to be) before an adjective is wrong. Without 很, a bare 热 implies contrast ('hot, not cold').
Beyond temperature, 热 has two important extended meanings: 'popular / trending' (热点 'hot topic', 热门 'popular') and 'warm-hearted / passionate' (热情 'warm and enthusiastic', 热心 'kind and helpful'). The opposite, 冷 (lěng), is its direct counterpart on the temperature scale.
Memory hook: The four dots at the bottom of 热 are the 'fire' radical (灬) — anything with that radical relates to heat or burning.
Hear 热 in real episodes
热 appears in 2 Fluentide podcast episodes at natural native speed. Each sentence plays at the easiest difficulty it exists in — switch it to hear the same moment at your level, with full pinyin and English throughout.
天气热了，帝王蝶飞去北边。
When the weather gets hot, the monarchs fly north.
No Monarch Butterfly Ever Finishes Its Own Migration — the Trip Takes Four Generations
黄石公园有很多热水。
Yellowstone has many hot springs.
Yellowstone Finds Over 280 Hats in Hot-Spring Areas
Example sentences
今天很热。
Jīntiān hěn rè.
Today is very hot.
spoken
我要喝热水。
Wǒ yào hē rè shuǐ.
I want to drink hot water.
spoken
夏天太热了。
Xiàtiān tài rè le.
Summer is too hot.
neutral
你热不热？
Nǐ rè bu rè?
Are you hot? (feeling warm)
spoken
Common phrases with 热
Synonyms
烫 means 'scalding / burning hot' — hot enough to hurt. Hot soup is 烫, not just 热. 热 covers warm-to-hot range; 烫 is the upper extreme that's dangerous to touch.
暖和 means 'warm and comfortable' — the pleasant kind of warmth (a warm sweater, warm spring weather). 热 is stronger and often uncomfortable; 暖和 is cozy.
Don't confuse 热 with
辣 means 'spicy hot' (chili-pepper hot), NOT temperature hot. 这个菜很辣 (this dish is spicy) vs. 这个菜很热 (this dish is hot in temperature). Different sensations, different words.
热闹 means 'lively / bustling' (a busy market is 热闹). It uses 热 as a component but the meaning is 'lively', not 'hot'.
FAQ
Related words from the same episodes
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Meet 热 again — in real Chinese, at your level.
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