liàn

smelt

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components
火 meaning component

  Meaning component

huǒ

  

fire

柬 sound component

  Sound component

jiǎn

  

letter

Shorthand derived from the cursive form of the traditional component.

Evolution

炼 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
炼 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
炼 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

() 

liàn

smelt, refine; distill, condense; to refine; to smelt

() 

liàn

variant of |[liàn], chain; variant of |[liàn]

Most common words with 炼
Freq.
Word
Meaning

锻炼

to toughen

to refine

修炼

to practice asceticism

炼狱

purgatory

提炼

to refine