妍 (yán): beautiful

妍 (yán) is a Chinese character meaning “beautiful.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (structural) and 开 (structural). It ranks #3918 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 妍 a woman 女 who appears forward or open 开. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 她 (tā, she), 好 (hǎo, good).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. beautiful

Etymology & Origin

妍

ideographicA woman 女 who appears forward or open 开

Decomposition: ⿰女开 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
争妍斗艳phrasezhēng yán dòu yàncontending for supreme beauty (esp. of flowers, scenery, painting etc)
妍丽yán lìbeautiful
2
Total compounds
50
As first character
0
As last character
50
As middle character

妍 appears in 2 compound words: 50 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 50 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 妍 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

现xiàn
0.33010 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

争妍斗艳zhēngyándòuyàn

to contend in beauty and fascination

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

本场比赛,中国队球员张琳艳、李晴潼因伤缺阵,王妍雯则因累积黄牌停赛。

běn chǎng bǐ sài , zhōng guó duì qiú yuán zhāng lín yàn , lǐ qíng 潼 yīn shāng quē zhèn , wáng yán wén zé yīn lèi jī huáng pái tíng sài .

In this match, Chinese players Zhang Linyan and Li Qingtong were sidelined due to injury, while Wang Yanwen was suspended for accumulating yellow cards.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

中国滑板选手孟令妍在中秋节迎来自己的13岁生日。

zhōng guó huá bǎn xuǎn shǒu mèng lìng yán zài zhōng qiū jié yíng lái zì jǐ de 1 3 suì shēng rì .

Chinese skateboarder Meng Lingyan celebrated her 13th birthday on the Mid-Autumn Festival.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

第70分钟,王霜右路传中,王妍雯头球摆渡,张琳艳门前头球破门,将比分扳为1:1。

dì 7 0 fēn zhōng , wáng shuāng yòu lù chuán zhōng , wáng yán wén tóu qiú bǎi dù , zhāng lín yàn mén qián tóu qiú pò mén , jiāng bǐ fēn bān wéi 1 : 1 .

In the 70th minute, Wang Shuang sent in a cross from the right wing, Wang Yanwen flicked it on with a header, and Zhang Linyan headed it into the net from close range, tying the score at 1–1.

爱范儿Sep 2026

影片由全度妍、薛景求、赵寅成和赵汝贞主演,是李沧东继《燃烧》后的首部长片。

yǐng piàn yóu quán dù yán , xuē jǐng qiú , zhào 寅 chéng hé zhào rǔ zhēn zhǔ yǎn , shì lǐ cāng dōng jì rán shāo hòu de shǒu bù cháng piàn .

Starring Jeon Do-yeon, Seol Kyung-gu, Jo In-sung, and Jo Yu-jeong, the film is Lee Chang-dong’s first feature film since *Burning*.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

当素妍和孩子们合唱这首歌时,回想起当年怀龙凤胎时为孩子取名的过往,情绪瞬间涌上心头。

dāng sù yán hé hái zǐ men hé chàng zhè shǒu gē shí , huí xiǎng qǐ dāng nián huái lóng fèng tāi shí wéi hái zǐ qǔ míng de guò wǎng , qíng xù shùn jiān yǒng shàng xīn tóu .

As Su-yeon sang this song with the children, she recalled the time when she was pregnant with twins—a boy and a girl—and was choosing names for them, and her emotions suddenly welled up.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 妍 (yán) mean in Chinese?
妍 (yán) primarily means "beautiful." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3918 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 妍 and 恶?
妍 (yán) and 恶 (è) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 妍 (beautiful) vs 恶 (ugly).
How many strokes does 妍 have?
妍 is written with 7 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 妍?
The radical associated with 妍 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 妍?
妍 is composed of: 女 (structural), 开 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女开 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 妍?
Common words with 妍 include: 争妍斗艳 (zhēng yán dòu yàn, "contending for supreme beauty (esp. of flowers, scenery, painting etc)"); 妍丽 (yán lì, "beautiful"). There are over 2 compound words containing this character.
Is 妍 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 妍 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 妍 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.