(niàng): to ferment, to brew, to make honey (of bees)

(niàng) is a Chinese character meaning “to ferment.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2610 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, wine. Its radical form (wine) appears in many related characters such as (pèi, to join), (suān, sour), (xǐng, to wake up).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to ferment
  2. to brew
  3. to make honey (of bees)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwine

Decomposition: ⿰酉良 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
niàng jiǔto make a fermented drink (i.e. to brew beer, make wine etc)
yùn niàng(of alcohol) to ferment
niàng chéngto make (wine or spirits)
niàng zàoto brew
jiā niàngexcellent wine
niàng zhìto brew (beer, soy sauce etc)
niàng jiǔ yèbrewing industry
jiǔ niàngsweet fermented rice
niàng zào xuézymurgy
niàng rè wùbiological fuel (such as horse dung)
jiā lì niàngCarignan (grape type)
jīng niàng pí jiǔcraft beer
jiā lì niàngCarignan (grape type)
niàng mǔ jūnyeast
tián jiǔ niàngfermented rice
17
Total compounds
53
As first character
41
As last character
6
As middle character

appears in 17 compound words: 53 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 6 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

yùn
0.8133,633 co-occurrences
jiǔ
0.62414,334 co-occurrences
0.5511,326 co-occurrences
zào
0.4929,048 co-occurrences
jiàng
0.491366 co-occurrences
táo
0.4871,560 co-occurrences
0.4851,710 co-occurrences
hǎn
0.4822,370 co-occurrences
jiào
0.479474 co-occurrences
0.462264 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le niàng zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "酿" in the dictionary.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...惊险车祸!宾士男猛撞缓撞车 “车头全烂”1伤

. . . jīng xiǎn chē huò ! bīn shì nán měng zhuàng huǎn zhuàng chē chē tóu quán làn niàng 1 shāng

... Thrilling car accident! The Mercedes-Benz man slammed into the car and crashed slowly, and the front of the car was completely rotten, causing 1 injury

WorldjournalFeb 2026

打瘦瘦针眼出血? 医揭62岁男左眼“全黑”:几近...

dǎ shòu shòu zhēn niàng yǎn chū xiě ? yī jiē 6 2 suì nán zuǒ yǎn quán hēi : jī jìn . . .

Eye bleeding caused by slimming injections? The doctor revealed that the 62-year-old man's left eye was "completely black": almost...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

中国观光巴士坠湖8死 旅团业者未注册

zhōng guó guàn guāng bā shì zhuì hú niàng 8 sǐ lǚ tuán yè zhě wèi zhù cè

China's sightseeing bus fell into the lake and caused 8 deaths, and the tour operator was not registered

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

...股风向球〉金马开红盘奔向3万4?两大变数短压 关注五大族群走势

. . . gǔ fēng xiàng qiú jīn mǎ kāi hóng pán bēn xiàng 3 wàn 4 ? liǎng dà biàn shǔ niàng duǎn yā guān zhù wǔ dà zú qún zǒu shì

... The golden horse opened the red plate and rushed to 30,000 4? Two major variables brewed short-term pressure and paid attention to the trend of the five major groups

LtnFeb 2026

...男童命丧花莲鲤鱼潭!家属控快艇“船尾浪”祸 交通部回应了

. . . nán tóng mìng sāng huā lián lǐ yú tán ! jiā shǔ kòng kuài tǐng chuán wěi làng niàng huò jiāo tōng bù huí yīng le

... The boy died in Hualien Carp Pool! The family controlled the speedboat's "stern waves" to cause trouble, and the Ministry of Communications responded

Tatoeba

他们的友情酝成爱情的果实。

Tāmen de yǒuqíng yùnniàng chéng àiqíng de guǒshí.

Their friendship ripened into a deep love.

Tatoeba

他和她之间的友谊,渐渐地酝成了爱情。

Tā hé tā zhījiān de yǒuyì, jiànjiàn de yùnniàng chéngle àiqíng.

By degrees the friendship between him and her grew into love.

Tatoeba

完美主义很容易成灾难。

Wánměi zhǔyì hěn róngyì niàngchéng zāinàn.

Perfectionism can quickly become a disaster.

Tatoeba

西班牙人用草莓树的果实造一种白兰地。

Xībānyárén yòng cǎoméi shù de guǒshí niàngzào yīzhǒng báilándì.

The Spanish make a type of brandy with the fruits of the strawberry tree.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced niàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 酿 (niàng) mean in Chinese?
酿 (niàng) primarily means "to ferment." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2610 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 酿 and 浪?
酿 (niàng) and 浪 (làng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 酉 vs 氵 (same 良 component).
How many strokes does 酿 have?
酿 is written with 14 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 酿?
The radical associated with 酿 is 酉 (wine). This radical appears in many characters related to wine.
What are the components of 酿?
酿 is composed of: 酉 (semantic), 良 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰酉良 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 酿?
Common words with 酿 include: 酿酒 (niàng jiǔ, "to make a fermented drink (i.e. to brew beer, make wine etc)"); 酝酿 (yùn niàng, "(of alcohol) to ferment"); 酿成 (niàng chéng, "to make (wine or spirits)"); 酿造 (niàng zào, "to brew"); 佳酿 (jiā niàng, "excellent wine"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 酿 (niàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation niàng: 娘 (mother). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 酿 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 酿 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.