(yàn): (bound form) to loathe, to be fed up with, (literary) to satiate, to satisfy

(yàn) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to loathe.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1622 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, cliff. Its radical form (cliff) appears in many related characters such as (yuán, former), (hǎn, "cliff" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 27), occurring in 原, 历, 压 etc), (, to experience).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to loathe
  2. to be fed up with
  3. (literary) to satiate
  4. to satisfy

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticcliff

Decomposition: ⿸厂犬 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjective/verbtǎo yànto dislike4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yàn juànto be weary of
yàn wùto loathe
yàn fánbored
yàn shí zhènganorexia
tān dé wú yànavaricious and insatiable (idiom)
bù yàn qí fánnot to mind taking all the trouble (idiom)
yàn shìworld-weary
huì yànepiglottis
yàn shíanorexia
xǐ xīn yàn jiùlit. to like the new, and hate the old (idiom)
bǎi tīng bù yànworth hearing a hundred times
yàn qìto spurn
tān lán wú yànavaricious and insatiable (idiom)
xué ér bù yànstudy tirelessly (idiom, from Analects)
nǚ xìng yàn wùmisogyny
47
Total compounds
36
As first character
40
As last character
23
As middle character

appears in 47 compound words: 36 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

juàn
0.6813,165 co-occurrences
è
0.67810,601 co-occurrences
tǎo
0.6599,475 co-occurrences
fán
0.6262,034 co-occurrences
yǎng
0.5142,604 co-occurrences
tān
0.505702 co-occurrences
jiào
0.481504 co-occurrences
lán
0.41190 co-occurrences
jūn
0.401660 co-occurrences
shǎ
0.397162 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (12)

bǎidúbùyànHSK 4+

worth reading a hundred times; can be reread many times with delight

phrase
bǎitīng bùyànHSK 4+

worth hearing a hundred times; never boring to listen to it

phrase
bīngbùyànzhàHSK 7+

all's fair in love and war

phrase
bùyàn qí fánHSK 4+

to not mind taking the trouble; to take great pains; to be very patient

phrase
tāndéwúyànHSK 7+

avaricious; greedy; not able to settle for less

phrase
tānlánwúyànHSK 7+

avaricious; greedy; not able to settle for less

phrase
tān qiú wú yànHSK 7+

insatiably greedy (idiom)

phrase
xǐxīnyànjiùHSK 4+

to love the new and loathe the old; to be fickle in affection (usually said of men)

phrase
xué'érbùyànHSK 4+

to have an insatiable desire to learn

phrase
shénzēngguǐyànHSK 7+

to be extremely detestable; to be extremely irritating

phrase
tān wěi wú yànHSK 7+

avaricious and insatiable (idiom); greedy and never satisfied

phrase
zhū qiú wú yànHSK 4+

(idiom) to relentlessly make excessive demands

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他从不倦学习,每天都充满热情地阅读新书。

Tā cóng bù yānjuan xuéxí, měitiān dōu chōngmǎn rèqíng de yuèdú xīn shū.

He never tires of learning and reads new books with enthusiasm every day.

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

黄暐瀚被酸“洗地”喊讨在野!徐巧芯反呛:他只捧某一方

huáng 暐 hàn bèi suān xǐ dì hǎn tǎo yàn zài yě ! xú qiǎo xīn fǎn qiàng : tā zhī pěng mǒu yī fāng

Huang Weihan was criticized for "whitewashing" the issue and called "unpopular among the opposition"! Hsu Chiao-hsin fired back: "He only supports one side."

StheadlineMar 2026

盟国变心?—英加法德民调结果 讨特朗普觉中国更可靠占多数

méng guó biàn xīn ? — yīng jiā fǎ dé mín diào jié guǒ tǎo yàn tè lǎng pǔ jué zhōng guó gēng kě kào zhàn duō shǔ

Are Allies Changing Their Minds?—Polls in the UK, Canada, France, and Germany Show a Majority Dislikes Trump and Views China as More Reliable

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

“和平委员会秒变恶和平” 陆官媒发影片讽美以攻伊

hé píng wěi yuán huì miǎo biàn yàn è hé píng lù guān méi fā yǐng piàn fěng měi yǐ gōng yī

"The peace committee became peace-averse in seconds" Lu official media released a video satirizing the United States and Israel to attack Iraq

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...纳撼动美新闻界!川普势力拿下CNN恐裁他恶主播

. . . nà hàn dòng měi xīn wén jiè ! chuān pǔ shì lì ná xià C N N kǒng cái tā yàn è zhǔ bō

... Shake up the American press! Trump's forces take over CNN, fearing that he will be laid off for his hatred of anchors

NewsFeb 2026

罗淑佩称景点一成不变旅客难免生 盼做到乐而忘返、念念不忘

luó 淑 pèi chèn jǐng diǎn yī chéng bù biàn lǚ kè nán miǎn shēng yàn pàn zuò dào lè ér wàng fǎn niàn niàn bù wàng

Luo Shupe stated that attractions that remain unchanged inevitably bore visitors. She hopes to create experiences so delightful that visitors lose track of time and leave with lasting memories.

Tatoeba

!轮胎爆了!

Tǎoyàn! lúntāi bào le!

Shit! I've got a flat.

Tatoeba

倦了她的抱怨。

Wǒ yànjuàn le tā de bàoyuàn.

I'm tired of her complaints.

Tatoeba

汤姆讨在禁烟区吸烟的人。

Tāngmǔ tǎoyàn zài jìnyānqū xīyān de rén.

Tom doesn't like people who smoke in no smoking areas.

Tatoeba

萨米非常讨蕾拉。

Sà mǐ fēicháng tǎoyàn lěi lā.

Sami hates Layla so much.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 厌 (yàn) mean in Chinese?
厌 (yàn) primarily means "(bound form) to loathe." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1622 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 厌 and 下?
厌 (yàn) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 厌 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 厌 have?
厌 is written with 6 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 厌?
The radical associated with 厌 is 厂 (cliff). This radical appears in many characters related to cliff.
What are the components of 厌?
厌 is composed of: 厂 (semantic), 犬 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸厂犬 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 厌?
Common words with 厌 include: 讨厌 (tǎo yàn, "to dislike"); 厌倦 (yàn juàn, "to be weary of"); 厌恶 (yàn wù, "to loathe"); 厌烦 (yàn fán, "bored"); 厌食症 (yàn shí zhèng, "anorexia"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 厌 (yàn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yàn: 烟 (smoke), 延 (to prolong), 严 (tight (closely sealed)), 言 (words), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 厌 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 厌 and the traditional form is 厭.

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.