檐 (yán): eaves

檐 (yán) is a Chinese character meaning “eaves.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 詹 (phonetic). It ranks #3059 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 檐 wood. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 木 (mù, wood/tree), 林 (lín, forest, woods), 森 (sēn, forest (dense)).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. eaves

Etymology & Origin

檐

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木詹 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
屋檐nounwū yáneaves
帽檐nounmào yánbrim (of a hat)
飞檐走壁phrasefēi yán zǒu bìto leap onto roofs and vault over walls (usually associated with martial arts)
房檐nounfáng yáneaves
密檐塔mì yán tǎmulti-eaved pagoda
封檐板fēng yán bǎnbarge board
挑檐tiǎo yáneaves
檐廊nounyán lángveranda
檐篷nounyán péng(HK) canopy
9
Total compounds
22
As first character
44
As last character
33
As middle character

檐 appears in 9 compound words: 22 as the first character, 44 as the last, and 33 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 檐 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

歇xiē
0.6101,638 co-occurrences
顶dǐng
0.5902,578 co-occurrences
攒cuán
0.560140 co-occurrences
翘qiáo
0.551214 co-occurrences
涩sè
0.507110 co-occurrences
悬xuán
0.497458 co-occurrences
砖zhuān
0.491378 co-occurrences
柱zhù
0.487932 co-occurrences
屋wū
0.4851,447 co-occurrences
廊láng
0.481594 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

飞檐走壁fēiyánzǒubìHSK 7+

to leap onto roofs and vault over walls

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

秋风起,檐叶变黄,铺满了林间小路。

qiū fēng qǐ , yán xié biàn huáng , pù mǎn le lín jiān xiǎo lù .

As the autumn wind blows, the leaves turn yellow and carpet the forest paths.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

四川青城山景区山门的重檐屋脊上,八仙过海彩塑惟妙惟肖,开启这场电影之旅。

sì chuān qīng chéng shān jǐng qū shān mén de chóng yán wū jǐ shàng , bā xiān guò hǎi cǎi sù wéi miào wéi xiào , kāi qǐ zhè chǎng diàn yǐng zhī lǚ .

On the double-eaved ridge of the main gate at the Mount Qingcheng Scenic Area in Sichuan, the vividly lifelike colored sculptures depicting the "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" kick off this cinematic journey.

少数派Jul 2026

殿前檐下竖匾“弥陀殿”极为珍贵,为金大定二十四年的原物,距今已有九百多年的历史。

diàn qián yán xià shù 匾 mí 陀 diàn jí wéi zhēn guì , wéi jīn dà dìng èr shí sì nián de yuán wù , jù jīn yǐ yǒu jiǔ bǎi duō nián de lì shǐ .

The plaque reading “Amitabha Hall,” hanging beneath the eaves in front of the hall, is extremely valuable; it is the original artifact from the 24th year of the Dading era of the Jin Dynasty and dates back more than 900 years.

少数派Jul 2026

唯一一点是每次折叠展开后需要手动调整下帽檐,不然会稍微有点歪。

wéi yī yī diǎn shì měi cì zhé dié zhǎn kāi hòu xū yāo shǒu dòng diào zhěng xià mào yán , bù rán huì shāo wēi yǒu diǎn wāi .

The only thing is that you need to manually adjust the brim each time you fold and unfold it; otherwise, it will be slightly crooked.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

现在的龙珠阁是于1990年重建的一幢仿明重檐宫廷建筑,现为景德镇官窑博物馆。

xiàn zài de lóng zhū gé shì yú 1 9 9 0 nián chóng jiàn de yī chuáng fǎng míng chóng yán gōng tíng jiàn zhù , xiàn wéi jǐng dé zhèn guān yáo bó wù guǎn .

The current Dragon Pearl Pavilion is a Ming-style imperial building with double eaves that was rebuilt in 1990; it now serves as the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

这座廊桥始建于明正德年间,全长51米,屋面檐角高翘。

zhè zuò láng qiáo shǐ jiàn yú míng zhèng dé nián jiān , quán cháng 5 1 mǐ , wū miàn yán jiǎo gāo qiáo .

This covered bridge was first built during the Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty; it is 51 meters long and features a roof with high, upturned eaves.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (wood) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 檐 (yán) mean in Chinese?
檐 (yán) primarily means "eaves." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3059 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 檐 and 蟾?
檐 (yán) and 蟾 (chán) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 虫 (same 詹 component).
How many strokes does 檐 have?
檐 is written with 17 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 檐?
The radical associated with 檐 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 檐?
檐 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 詹 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木詹 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 檐?
Common words with 檐 include: 屋檐 (wū yán, "eaves"); 帽檐 (mào yán, "brim (of a hat)"); 飞檐走壁 (fēi yán zǒu bì, "to leap onto roofs and vault over walls (usually associated with martial arts)"); 房檐 (fáng yán, "eaves"); 密檐塔 (mì yán tǎ, "multi-eaved pagoda"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
Is 檐 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 檐 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 檐 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.