音読み: レン
訓読み: ねる
画数: 14
部首: いとへん（糸）
Meaning
Train / Practice / Refine
- Basic forms
- 練る — to knead / to refine / to polish / base form
- 練ります — (I) knead / refine / masu form
- 練った — kneaded / refined / ta form
- 練って — knead (and…) / te form
- 練らない — do not knead / negative
- 練れば — if (you) knead / conditional
- 練れ — knead! / imperative
- Other common forms
- 計画を練る — to refine a plan
- 文章を練っている — polishing the writing
- More
- もっと練ろう — let’s refine it more / volitional
- 練らなかった — didn’t knead / negative past
- 練っている — is kneading / is refining / progressive
練る（ねる） is a godan verb. Used literally for kneading (dough, paste) and figuratively for polishing ideas, writing, strategies, and plans.
- 練習 — practice
- 訓練 — training
- 試練 — trial / test
- 練成 — discipline / cultivation
- 練乳 — condensed milk
- 精練 — refining / polish
Compound Verbs - tap to expand
- 練り直す — to rework; to revise (a plan, idea)
- 練り上げる — to work up; to elaborate; to knead thoroughly
- 練り込む — to knead in; to incorporate (ingredients, ideas)
- 練り合わせる — to blend; to mix together
The kanji 練 combines the radical 糸 for "thread" with the phonetic component 東. The original meaning was "to twist threads together" — and by extension, it came to mean "to knead," "refine," and eventually "train the body or mind."