(yān): smoke

(yān) is a Chinese character meaning “smoke.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #967 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fire. Its radical form (fire) appears in many related characters such as (huǒ, fire), (dēng, lamp, light), (fán, to feel vexed).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. smoke

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿰火因 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
chōu yānvariant of 抽菸|抽烟[chou1 yan1]
xiāng yānsmoke from incense (burned as an offering to one's ancestors)
xī yānto smoke
yān wùsmoke
yān cǎotobacco
yān huāfireworks
jiè yānto give up smoking
mào yānto discharge smoke
yān cōngchimney
yān huǒsmoke and fire
yān dǒu(smoking) pipe
yān tóucigarette butt
nóng yānthick smoke
yān qiāngopium pipe
diǎn yānto light a cigarette
100
Total compounds
53
As first character
34
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 53 as the first character, 34 as the last, and 13 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.

cōng
0.7576,507 co-occurrences
0.6758,688 co-occurrences
xūn
0.5571,374 co-occurrences
cǎo
0.51913,494 co-occurrences
nóng
0.4912,078 co-occurrences
chén
0.4881,212 co-occurrences
0.4877,427 co-occurrences
0.4431,566 co-occurrences
chuī
0.442246 co-occurrences
mài
0.4411,704 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (13)

chōuyóuyānjīHSK 5+

extractor hood

noun
hàorúyānhǎiHSK 7+

a tremendous amount; voluminous

phrase
huāng wú rén yānHSK 7+

desolate and uninhabited (idiom)

phrase
huāng yān màn cǎoHSK 7+

lit. abandoned by men and choked with weeds; desolate (idiom)

phrase
huīfēiyānmièHSK 6+

to vanish completely

phrase
láng yān sì qǐHSK 6+

fire beacons on all sides (idiom); enveloped in the flames of war

phrase
miǎowúrényānHSK 7+

to be deserted; to be desolate; to be uninhabited

phrase
qī qiào shēng yānHSK 7+

lit. spouting smoke through the seven orifices (idiom); fig. to seethe with anger

phrase
rényānchóumìHSK 7+

to be densely populated

phrase
rényānxīshǎoHSK 7+

to be sparsely populated

phrase
rényānhàorángHSK 7+

synonym of 人煙稠密 /人烟稠密 (rényānchóumì, “to be densely populated”)

phrase
yān xūn huǒ liǎoHSK 7+

smoke and baking fire (idiom); surrounded by flames and smoke

phrase

Showing 12 of 13 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

工厂排放的浓对周围居民的健康造成了严重影响。

Gōngchǎng páifàng de nóngyān duì zhōuwéi jūmín de jiànkāng zàochéng le yánzhòng yǐngxiǎng.

The thick smoke emitted by factories has caused serious health impacts on surrounding residents.

百度新闻Feb 2026

“泉”在济南过大年丨火年味浓!济南芙蓉街客流持续..

quán zài jì nán guò dà nián 丨 yān huǒ nián wèi nóng ! jì nán 芙 蓉 jiē kè liú chí xù . .

"Spring" celebrates the New Year in Jinan丨Fireworks have a strong New Year's flavor! Jinan Furong Street passenger flow continues:

百度新闻Feb 2026

“贵州火气·黔味中国年”天眼纪录·回家|开往春...

guì zhōu yān huǒ qì 黔 wèi zhōng guó nián tiān yǎn jì lù huí jiā kāi wǎng chūn . . .

"Guizhou Fireworks and Qianwei Chinese Year" Tianyan Record Home|Drive to Spring...

百度新闻Feb 2026

贵州火气·黔味中国年丨览林城山色,赏乌江画廊...

guì zhōu yān huǒ qì 黔 wèi zhōng guó nián 丨 lǎn lín chéng shān sè , shǎng wū jiāng huà láng . . .

Guizhou Smoke and Fireworks - Qianlian Chinese New Year 丨visit the forest city mountain color, enjoy the Wujiang River gallery...

百度新闻Feb 2026

古镇火与家常珍味,每一家餐厅都是精选丨寻味青...

gǔ zhèn yān huǒ yú jiā cháng zhēn wèi , měi yī jiā cān tīng dū shì jīng xuǎn 丨 xún wèi qīng . . .

The most important thing to remember is the fact that you can't afford to lose the money you've spent on your own.

百度新闻Feb 2026

贵州火气·黔味中国年|马年新春“入戏”都匀 ...

guì zhōu yān huǒ qì 黔 wèi zhōng guó nián mǎ nián xīn chūn rù xì dū yún . . .

Guizhou Fireworks - Qianqian Taste Chinese New Year|The New Year of the Horse "play" Duyun ...

Tatoeba

你介意我抽根吗?

Nǐ jièyì wǒ chōu gēn yān ma?

Do you mind if I smoke a cigarette?

Tatoeba

容易,戒你太难!

Jièyān róngyì, jiè nǐ tài nán!

Quitting smoking is easy, quitting you is too hard.

Tatoeba

我一定要把香戒了!

Wǒ yīdìngyào bǎ xiāngyān jiè le!

I'm definitely going to quit smoking!

Tatoeba

小王听从了我的劝告,把戒了!

Xiǎo Wáng tīngcóng le wǒ de quàngào, bǎ yān jiè le!

Xiao Wang followed my advice and quit smoking.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 烟 (yān) mean in Chinese?
烟 (yān) primarily means "smoke." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #967 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 烟 and 恩?
烟 (yān) and 恩 (ēn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 火 vs 忄 (same 因 component).
How many strokes does 烟 have?
烟 is written with 10 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 烟?
The radical associated with 烟 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 烟?
烟 is composed of: 火 (semantic), 因 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火因 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 烟?
Common words with 烟 include: 抽烟 (chōu yān, "variant of 抽菸|抽烟[chou1 yan1]"); 香烟 (xiāng yān, "smoke from incense (burned as an offering to one's ancestors)"); 吸烟 (xī yān, "to smoke"); 烟雾 (yān wù, "smoke"); 烟草 (yān cǎo, "tobacco"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 烟 (yān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yān: 咽 (throat), 延 (to prolong), 严 (tight (closely sealed)), 言 (words), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 烟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 烟 and the traditional form is 煙.

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.