恩 (ēn): favor, grace, kindness, (coll.) used like 嗯 in online chat, expressing agreement
恩 (ēn) is a Chinese character meaning “favor.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 因 (phonetic) and 心 (semantic). It ranks #888 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 恩 heart. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).
Definitions
- favor
- grace
- kindness
- (coll.) used like 嗯 in online chat, expressing agreement
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 恩 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 感恩节proper-noun | gǎn ēn jié | Thanksgiving Day |
| 肖恩 | xiāo ēn | Sean, Shaun or Shawn (name) |
| 布莱恩proper-noun | bù lái ēn | Brian (name) |
| 恩怨noun | ēn yuàn | gratitude and grudges |
| 感恩verb | gǎn ēn | to be grateful |
| 罗恩 | luó ēn | Ron (name) |
| 伯恩proper-noun | bó ēn | (Tw) Bern, capital of Switzerland |
| 恩惠noun | ēn huì | favor |
| 恩赐verb | ēn cì | to bestow (favors, charity etc) |
| 忘恩负义phrase | wàng ēn fù yì | to forget favors and violate justice (idiom) |
| 谢恩verb | xiè ēn | to thank sb for favor (esp. emperor or superior official) |
| 恩人noun | ēn rén | a benefactor |
| 麦凯恩proper-noun | mài kǎi ēn | McCain (name) |
| 莱恩 | lái ēn | (name) Ryan |
| 吉恩 | jí ēn | Gene (name) |
恩 appears in 100 compound words: 37 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 23 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.
Strongest Collocations
Characters that most frequently co-occur with 恩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (13)
to be devoid of gratefulness; to forget someone’s kindness and turn one’s back on him; to bite the hand that feeds one
to be devoid of gratefulness; to forget someone’s kindness and turn one’s back on him; to bite the hand that feeds one
Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing 恩.
Example Sentences
虽然失败了，但他恩不气馁，继续努力。
suī rán shī bài le , dàn tā ēn bù qì něi , jì xù nǔ lì .
Though he failed, he did not lose heart and continued to strive.
村屋旧楼入门 5G 路由器恩物 Wavlink AX3000 5G ...
cūn wū jiù lóu rù mén 5 G lù yóu qì ēn wù W a v l i n k A X 3 0 0 0 5 G . . .
Village House Old Building Entry-level 5G Router Grace Wavlink AX3000 5G ...
美媒报导凯恩将军对袭击伊朗立场 川普回应
měi méi bào dǎo kǎi ēn jiāng jūn duì xí jī yī lǎng lì chǎng chuān pǔ huí yīng
US media reported that General Kaine's position on the attack on Iran Trump responded
敏感时刻...习近平致电金正恩 巩固中朝关系
mǐn gǎn shí kè . . . xí jìn píng zhì diàn jīn zhèng ēn gǒng gù zhōng cháo guān xì
Sensitive moments... Xi Jinping called Kim Jong-un to consolidate China-North Korea relations
敏感时刻 习致电金正恩 巩固中朝关系
mǐn gǎn shí kè xí zhì diàn jīn zhèng ēn gǒng gù zhōng cháo guān xì
Sensitive moment Xi called Kim Jong-un to consolidate China-North Korea relations
明真相大陆民众新年感恩:大法师父好
míng zhēn xiāng dà lù mín zhòng xīn nián gǎn ēn : dà fǎ shī fù hǎo
The people of the mainland are grateful for the New Year: Hello Master Dafa
肯恩现在在做什么？
Kěn ēn xiànzài zài zuò shénme?
What's Ken doing now?
他是我的救命恩人。
Tā shì wǒ de jiùmìng ēnrén.
I owe him my life.
艾发现和开恩交朋友很难。
ài fāxiàn hé kāi'ēn jiāopéngyou hěn nán.
Ai finds it difficult to make friends with Ken.
布莱恩正握着凯特的手。
Bùlái'ēn zhèng wò zhe Kǎitè de shǒu.
Brian is holding Kate's hands.
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 心 (heart) component
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is 恩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
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