ENESFRDE中文

Characters, words, pinyin or English

灵 líng spirit

spirit; soul

How to remember 灵: 𫜹 snout + 火 fire = spirit. The old dog rests its grey snout near the camp fire, and grandma says no dog ever had such a gentle spirit.

  • HSK 5
  • 7 strokes

Component breakdown

灵 = 𫜹 snout + 火 fire

  • 𫜹 snout
  • 火 fire
The Gushi story

The old dog rests its grey snout near the camp fire, and grandma says no dog ever had such a gentle spirit.

How it is used

  • Covers both "spirit/soul" (心灵 xīnlíng, the mind/heart/soul, as opposed to the body) and "clever, quick-witted" (机灵 jīling, 灵活 línghuó "flexible/nimble").
  • 灵活 línghuó is the everyday word for flexibility, used for both people's thinking and policies/schedules: 时间很灵活 (shíjiān hěn línghuó) - "the schedule is flexible."
  • 失灵 shīlíng means a mechanism has malfunctioned or stopped working (刹车失灵 shāchē shīlíng - "the brakes failed"), a different, mechanical sense from the spiritual/mental ones.
  • 灵感 línggǎn (inspiration) is the standard word artists and writers use for creative inspiration.

Words with 灵