(yán): to research, to grind

(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 (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #447 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to research, to grind

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticstone

Decomposition: ⿰石开 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
verbyán jiūresearch4
nounyán jiū shēnggraduate student4
verbyán fāresearch and development5
verbyán zhìto research and manufacture5
verbkē yán(scientific) research5
verbdiào yánto investigate and research5
verbyán tǎodiscussion6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yán jiū suǒresearch institute
yán tǎo huìdiscussion forum
yán jiū yuánresearcher
zuān yánto study meticulously
yán xiūto do research work
yán jiū yuànresearch institute
yán jiū zhěinvestigator
yán xíresearch and study
yán mómilling
yán dúto study attentively (a book)
jiào yán shìteaching and research office
yán huáAdvantech, technology company
yán bōmortar (bowl for grinding with pestle)
rì běn yuán zǐ néng yán jiū suǒJapan Atomic Energy Research Institute
zhōng měi wén huà yán jiū zhōng xīnthe Hopkins-Nanjing Center, located in Nanjing, est. 1986 (formally, the Johns Hopkins University – Nanjing Universit...
65
Total compounds
52
As first character
17
As last character
31
As middle character

appears in 65 compound words: 52 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 31 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.

jiū
0.9973,217,065 co-occurrences
0.693691,008 co-occurrences
xiǎo
0.6841,361,364 co-occurrences
xīng
0.611679,392 co-occurrences
háng
0.534746,580 co-occurrences
suǒ
0.517412,380 co-occurrences
yuàn
0.463188,892 co-occurrences
0.441174,126 co-occurrences
xué
0.439213,270 co-occurrences
tǎo
0.42118,756 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

jí shēn yán jǐHSK 4+

deep and detailed investigation (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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

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,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”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

苏联学家究什么呢?

Sūlián xué jiā yánjiū shénme ne?

What does a Sovietologist study?

Tatoeba

他不是罗马大学的究生吗?

Tā bù shì Luómǎ dàxué de yánjiūshēng ma?

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

Tatoeba

他们从事癌症究工作。

Tāmen cóngshì áizhèng yánjiū gōngzuò.

They are engaged in cancer research.

Character Family

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.
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 65 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 研 (yán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yán: 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 研 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 研 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.