研 (yán): to research, to grind

研 (yán) is a Chinese character meaning “to research, to grind.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 石 (semantic) and 开 (phonetic). It ranks #447 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 研 stone. Its radical form 石 (stone) appears in many related characters such as 确 (què, certain, true), 碗 (wǎn, bowl), 碰 (pèng, to touch, to bump).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to research, to grind

Etymology & Origin

研

pictophoneticstone

Decomposition: ⿰石开 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 研

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
研究verbyán jiūresearch4
研究生nounyán jiū shēnggraduate student4
研发verbyán fāresearch and development5
研制verbyán zhìto research and manufacture5
科研verbkē yán(scientific) research5
调研verbdiào yánto investigate and research5
研讨verbyán tǎodiscussion6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
研究所nounyán jiū suǒresearch institute
研讨会nounyán tǎo huìdiscussion forum
研究员nounyán jiū yuánresearcher
钻研verbzuān yánto study meticulously
研修verbyán xiūto do research work
研究院nounyán jiū yuànresearch institute
研究者nounyán jiū zhěinvestigator
研习verbyán xíresearch and study
研磨verbyán mómilling
研读verbyán dúto study attentively (a book)
教研室nounjiào yán shìteaching and research office
研华yán huáAdvantech, technology company
研钵nounyán bōmortar (bowl for grinding with pestle)
日本原子能研究所rì běn yuán zǐ néng yán jiū suǒJapan Atomic Energy Research Institute
中美文化研究中心zhōng měi wén huà yán jiū zhōng xīnthe Hopkins-Nanjing Center, located in Nanjing, est. 1986 (formally, the Johns Hopkins University – Nanjing Universit...
64
Total compounds
55
As first character
17
As last character
28
As middle character

研 appears in 64 compound words: 55 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 28 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 研 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

究jiū
0.9501,072,645 co-occurrences
组zǔ
0.683230,336 co-occurrences
小xiǎo
0.674453,788 co-occurrences
星xīng
0.602226,464 co-occurrences
行xíng
0.526248,860 co-occurrences
所suǒ
0.509137,460 co-occurrences
棱léng
0.49110 co-occurrences
院yuàn
0.45662,964 co-occurrences
科kē
0.43558,042 co-occurrences
学xué
0.43371,090 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

极深研几jí shēn yán jǐHSK 4+

deep and detailed investigation (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

研究院正在开发新技术,预计明年可以投入市场。

Yánjiūyuàn zhèngzài kāifā xīn jìshù, yùjì míngnián kěyǐ tóurù shìchǎng.

The research institute is developing new technology, expected to enter the market next year.

東方日報Feb 2026

运署研自动车商用载客 点对点接驳高铁机铁

yùn shǔ yán zì dòng chē shāng yòng zài kè diǎn duì diǎn jiē bó gāo tiě jī tiě

The Department of Transport has developed a point-to-point connection to high-speed rail and railways for commercial passenger vehicles

It之家Feb 2026

研究表明:监管缺失的商业航天活动正成为大气...

yán jiū biǎo míng : jiān guǎn quē shī de shāng yè háng tiān huó dòng zhèng chéng wéi dà qì . . .

Research shows that commercial space activities without regulation are becoming atmospheric...

百度新闻Feb 2026

大年初三车间灯就亮了,航天老厂通过自研AI平台,稳..

dà nián chū sān chē jiān dēng jiù liàng le , háng tiān lǎo hǎn tōng guò zì yán A I píng tái , wěn . .

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the workshop lights were turned on, and the old aerospace factory was steadily developed through the self-developed AI platform.

百度新闻Feb 2026

大型翻车现场!印度大学买中国机器狗充自研,被抓包后..

dà xíng fān chē xiàn chǎng ! yìn dù dà xué mǎi zhōng guó jī qì gǒu chōng zì yán , bèi zhuā bāo hòu . .

Large-scale overturn scene! Indian universities to buy Chinese robotic dogs for self-research, was caught after...

百度新闻Feb 2026

科学内调成美肤新刚需,肌原光以“产学研”硬实力登陆..

kē xué nèi diào chéng měi fū xīn gāng xū , jī yuán guāng yǐ chǎn xué yán yìng shí lì dēng lù . .

Scientific internal adjustment has become a new demand for skin beauty, Myogen Light with "production, research and learning" hard power to land...

Tatoeba

凯教授已研究昆虫四十年。

Kǎi jiàoshòu yǐ yánjiū kūnchóng sìshí nián.

Professor Kai has been studying insects for forty years.

Tatoeba

苏联学家研究什么呢?

Sūlián xué jiā yánjiū shénme ne?

What does a Sovietologist study?

Tatoeba

他不是罗马大学的研究生吗?

Tā bù shì Luómǎ dàxué de yánjiūshēng ma?

Isn't he a graduate student at the University of Rome?

Tatoeba

他们从事癌症研究工作。

Tāmen cóngshì áizhèng yánjiū gōngzuò.

They are engaged in cancer research.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 石 (stone) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced yán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 研 (yán) mean in Chinese?
研 (yán) primarily means "to research, to grind." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #447 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 研 and 邢?
研 (yán) and 邢 (xíng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 石 vs 阝 (same 开 component).
How many strokes does 研 have?
研 is written with 9 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 研?
The radical associated with 研 is 石 (stone). This radical appears in many characters related to stone.
What are the components of 研?
研 is composed of: 石 (semantic), 开 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰石开 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 研?
Common words with 研 include: 研究 (yán jiū, "research"); 研究生 (yán jiū shēng, "graduate student"); 研发 (yán fā, "research and development"); 研究所 (yán jiū suǒ, "research institute"); 研讨会 (yán tǎo huì, "discussion forum"). There are over 64 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 研 (yán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yán: 眼 (eye), 言 (words), 严 (tight (closely sealed)), 验 (to test, to verify), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 研 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 研 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 研 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.