Chinese symbol for “refine”
炼
liàn
Traditional: 煉
to refine; to smelt
The closest CC-CEDICT match for refine is 炼 (liàn), defined as: to refine; to smelt.
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “refine”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 精炼 (精煉) | jīng liàn | to refine (a substance); to purify |
| 改良 | gǎi liáng | to improve (sth); to refine; to reform (a system) |
| 炼化 (煉化) | liàn huà | to refine; refining (e.g. oil, chemicals etc) |
| 完善 | wán shàn | (of systems, facilities etc) comprehensive; well-developed |
| 提取 | tí qǔ | to withdraw (money); to collect (left luggage) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 炼.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 锻炼 (鍛鍊) | duàn liàn | to toughen; to temper |
| 修炼 (修煉) | xiū liàn | (of Taoists) to practice austerities; to practice asceticism |
| 提炼 (提煉) | tí liàn | to extract (ore, minerals etc); to refine |
| 冶炼 (冶煉) | yě liàn | to smelt metal |
| 炼狱 (煉獄) | liàn yù | purgatory |
| 炼油 (煉油) | liàn yóu | to refine crude oil; to render animal fat |
See also: Japanese symbol for “refine”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.