阎 (yán): hell

阎 (yán) is a Chinese character meaning “hell.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 门 (semantic) and 臽 (phonetic). It ranks #2389 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 阎 gate. Its radical form 门 (gate) appears in many related characters such as 门 (mén, door, gate), 间 (jiān, room, between), 闪 (shǎn, to flash, to dodge).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 门 gate11 strokesFrequency #2389门 semantic臽 phonetic

Definitions

  1. hell

Etymology & Origin

阎

pictophoneticgate

Decomposition: ⿵门臽 (layout: surround-from-top)

Components:门semantic臽phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
阎王proper-nounyán wang(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell
阎王爷proper-nounyán wáng yé(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell
阎罗王proper-nounyán luó wáng(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell
阎王殿proper-nounyán wáng diànYama's palace
阎王好见，小鬼难当yán wáng hǎo jiàn , xiǎo guǐ nán dānglit. standing in front of the King of Hell is easy, but smaller devils are difficult to deal with (idiom)
见阎王verbjiàn yán wáng(coll.) to meet one's maker
阎良区yán liáng qūYanliang, a district of Xi'an City 西安市, Shaanxi
阎老yán lǎo(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell
阎罗proper-nounyán luó(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell
阎罗殿proper-nounyán luó diànYama's palace
阎锡山yán xī shānYan Xishan (1883-1960), warlord in Shanxi
阎良yán liángsee 閻良區|阎良区
阎魔proper-nounyán mó(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell
阎君proper-nounyán jūn(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell
14
Total compounds
93
As first character
0
As last character
7
As middle character

阎 appears in 14 compound words: 93 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 7 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 阎 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

锡xī
0.6312,332 co-occurrences
堪kān
0.447234 co-occurrences
阁gé
0.432262 co-occurrences
凤fèng
0.425242 co-occurrences
山shān
0.4182,440 co-occurrences
宝bǎo
0.400322 co-occurrences
闯chuǎng
0.38034 co-occurrences
振zhèn
0.379242 co-occurrences
萌méng
0.37880 co-occurrences
岳yuè
0.377160 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

阎王是民间传说中的阴间主宰。

Yánwáng shì mínjiān chuánshuō zhōng de yīnjiān zhǔzǎi.

Yan Wang is the ruler of the underworld in folklore.

風傳媒Mar 2026

阎纪宇专栏:伊朗人民揭竿而起、推翻政权?

yán jì yǔ zhuān lán : yī lǎng rén mín jiē gān ér qǐ , tuī fān zhèng quán ?

Yan Jiyu's Column: Will the Iranian People Rise Up and Overthrow the Regime?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 门 (gate) component

阁gé阔kuò阐chǎn阀fá闺guī闸zhá阂hé闫yán

门 Radical Family — Characters sharing the gate radical

间jiān门mén

Related Characters

门mén间jiān闪shǎn闭bì闹nào阅yuè闯chuǎng闲xián阔kuò闷mēn

Homophones — Characters pronounced yán

眼yǎn言yán严yán验yàn研yán演yǎn烟yān延yán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 阎 (yán) mean in Chinese?
阎 (yán) primarily means "hell." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2389 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 阎 and 掐?
阎 (yán) and 掐 (qiā) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 门 vs 扌 (same 臽 component).
How many strokes does 阎 have?
阎 is written with 11 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 阎?
The radical associated with 阎 is 门 (gate). This radical appears in many characters related to gate.
What are the components of 阎?
阎 is composed of: 门 (semantic), 臽 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵门臽 with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 阎?
Common words with 阎 include: 阎王 (yán wang, "(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell"); 阎王爷 (yán wáng yé, "(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell"); 阎罗王 (yán luó wáng, "(Buddhism) Yama, the King of Hell"); 阎王殿 (yán wáng diàn, "Yama's palace"); 阎王好见，小鬼难当 (yán wáng hǎo jiàn , xiǎo guǐ nán dāng, "lit. standing in front of the King of Hell is easy, but smaller devils are difficult to deal with (idiom)"). There are over 14 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 阎 (yán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yán: 眼 (eye), 言 (words), 严 (tight (closely sealed)), 验 (to test, to verify), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 阎 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 阎 and the traditional form is 閻.

Practice writing 阎 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

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.