刹那

刹那 chànà

An instant (Sanskrit: ksana); split second; the twinkling of an eye^†

刹那 in a sentence HSK 6 繁體剎那 chana

What 刹那 means

An instant (Sanskrit: ksana); split second; the twinkling of an eye^†

† Our own dictionary has no entry for 刹那, so these meanings are adapted from CC-CEDICT, published by MDBG and its contributors and based on CEDICT © 1997, 1998 Paul Andrew Denisowski, and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recognise a piece of 刹那 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

刹那 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

刹

chà / shā

Buddhist temple (instant); Stop (break)

那

nà / nèi

That (those); That

Words that share a character with 刹那

How to write 刹那

Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and what dictionary lookup by stroke count depends on.

Practise 刹那 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

刹那 in a sentence

那一刹那，他忽然明白了一切。

Nà yí chànà, tā hūrán míngbai le yíqiè.

In that split second he suddenly understood everything.

灯灭的刹那，全场安静了下来。

Dēng miè de chànà, quánchǎng ānjìng le xiàlái.

The instant the lights went out, the whole hall fell silent.

Every sentence on this site that uses 刹那 is collected on the 刹那 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 刹那

What does 刹那 mean in English?

刹那 is pronounced chànà and means An instant (Sanskrit: ksana); split second; the twinkling of an eye †.

How do you pronounce 刹那?

刹那 is chànà in pinyin — written chana without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 刹那?

刹那 is written with 2 characters: 刹 (chà / shā) Buddhist temple (instant); Stop (break), 那 (nà / nèi) That (those); That. Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

How is 刹那 written in traditional Chinese?

剎那. The simplified form 刹那 is used in mainland China and Singapore; 剎那 is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Both are pronounced chànà.

Is 刹那 an HSK word?

Yes — 刹那 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

差别 chābié 插座 chāzuò 查获 cháhuò 岔 chà 诧异 chàyì 柴油 cháiyóu 搀 chān 馋 chán

Keep going

Translate a whole sentence containing 刹那 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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