Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Cold (weather): Describes a low atmospheric temperature that causes discomfort. This is the primary meaning, referring specifically to the weather or climate.
   • Feeling cold: Describes the physical sensation of being cold.

2. Noun:

   • The cold / cold weather: Refers to the state or condition of cold weather.
   • A cold spell / a bout of cold: Refers to a period of sustained cold weather.
   • Fever chills: Used in medical contexts to describe the chills associated with a fever.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • Trời hôm nay rất rét. (The weather is very cold today.)
  • Tôi cảm thấy rét. (I feel cold.)

• Noun:

  • Mùa rét đã đến. (The cold season has arrived.)
  • Một đợt rét kéo dài. (A prolonged cold spell.)
  • Anh ấy bị sốt và run rét. (He has a fever and is shaking with chills.)

Advanced Usage

• "rét run" or "run rét": to shiver from the cold.

  • Đứng ngoài gió, cô ấy rét run. (Standing in the wind, she shivered from the cold.)

• "rét mướt": describes a penetrating, damp cold.

  • Trời đông rét mướt. (The winter weather is a damp, biting cold.)

Variants and Related Words

• Rét buốt (adj): piercingly cold, cold that stings.

  • Gió mùa đông bắc rét buốt. (The northeast wind is piercingly cold.)

• Chống rét (v): to protect against the cold, to keep warm.

  • Chúng tôi phải mặc nhiều quần áo để chống rét. (We have to wear many layers to protect against the cold.)

• Sốt rét (n): malaria (literally "fever-cold").

  • Vùng này có nhiều người mắc sốt rét. (Many people in this area have malaria.)

Synonyms

• Lạnh: cold (a more general term for low temperature, applicable to objects, feelings, and weather; "rét" is more specific to weather or the physical feeling it causes).
• Giá lạnh: frigid, icy cold.
• Lạnh giá: cold and bleak.

Related Idioms

• Rét như cắt: (to be) cold as a knife cut; describes an intensely sharp, biting cold.

  • Sáng sớm ở vùng cao rét như cắt. (The early morning in the highlands is bitterly cold.)

• Rét đến tận xương: the cold penetrates to the bones.

  • Ngồi trong nhà không sưởi, tôi thấy rét đến tận xương. (Sitting in the unheated house, I felt cold to the bone.)

1. to be cold
   • trời rét
     cold weather