Ծիածան
“Ծիածան” (tsiatsan) — rainbow in Armenian. Noun, level A2. three syllables, stress on the last: tsi-a-TSAN. In a live sentence: “Անձրևից հետո ծիածան երևաց” — A rainbow appeared after the rain. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters Ծ, ի, ա, ծ, ա, ն. A word from the everyday Armenian course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Armenian | Ծիածան |
| Read in Latin letters | tsiatsan |
| Translation | rainbow |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
- Ծիածանtsiatsanrainbow
How to pronounce it
three syllables, stress on the last: tsi-a-TSAN
Why it looks that way
Both ts are plain ts, not dz; the seven colors of the rainbow is tsiatsani yot guynə; the same word names the oily film on water
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Անձրևից հետո ծիածան երևացandzrevits heto tsiatsan yerevatsA rainbow appeared after the rain
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “rainbow” in Armenian?
«Ծիածան», read “tsiatsan”. three syllables, stress on the last: tsi-a-TSAN. In a live sentence: “Անձրևից հետո ծիածան երևաց” — A rainbow appeared after the rain. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A2; written with the characters Ծ, ի, ա, ծ, ա, ն.
How is “Ծիածան” written in Latin letters?
tsiatsan. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Both ts are plain ts, not dz; the seven colors of the rainbow is tsiatsani yot guynə; the same word names the oily film on water. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.