尹 (yǐn): surname Yin, (literary) to administer, to govern, (bound form) governor, prefect, magistrate (official title in imperial times)

尹 (yǐn) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) to administer.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 一 (structural) and 尸 (structural). It ranks #3573 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 尹 a scepter. Its radical form 尸 (corpse) appears in many related characters such as 层 (céng, to pile on top of one another), 居 (jū, to reside), 展 (zhǎn, to spread out).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. surname Yin
  2. (literary) to administer
  3. to govern
  4. (bound form) governor
  5. prefect
  6. magistrate (official title in imperial times)

Etymology & Origin

尹

pictographicA scepter

Decomposition: ⿻一尸 (layout: overlay)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
府尹nounfǔ yǐnmagistrate
陈恭尹chén gōng yǐnChen Gongyin (1631-1700), early Qing dynasty poet
尹潽善yǐn pǔ shànYun Poseon (1897-1990), South Korean Democratic party politician, mayor of Seoul from 1948, president 1960-1962
3
Total compounds
33
As first character
67
As last character
0
As middle character

尹 appears in 3 compound words: 33 as the first character, 67 as the last, and 0 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 尹 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

锡xī
0.68013 co-occurrences
悦yuè
0.67513 co-occurrences
逸yì
0.64411 co-occurrences
娱yú
0.63210 co-occurrences
祥xiáng
0.59010 co-occurrences
掀xiān
0.55511 co-occurrences
挺tǐng
0.51611 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Sep 2026

尹光昕:我们骑车的时候,可以佩戴有面屏的头盔,防止飞虫飞到眼睛里。

yǐn guāng 昕 : wǒ men qí chē de shí hòu , kě yǐ pèi dài yǒu miàn píng de tóu 盔 , fáng zhǐ fēi chóng fēi dào yǎn jīng lǐ .

Yin Guangxin: When we ride bikes, we can wear helmets with visors to keep insects out of our eyes.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

剧场后台,临泉县临美杂技团团长尹波正招呼演员上场。

jù chǎng hòu tái , lín quán xiàn lín měi zá jì tuán tuán cháng yǐn bō zhèng zhāo hū yǎn yuán shàng chǎng .

Backstage at the theater, Yin Bo, director of the Linmei Acrobatics Troupe of Linquan County, is directing the performers as they take the stage.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

中新网 上海9月22日电 (李秋莹 尹家骏)中秋临近,上海街头的月饼香气渐浓。

zhōng xīn wǎng shàng hǎi 9 yuè 2 2 rì diàn ( lǐ qiū yíng yǐn jiā jùn ) zhōng qiū lín jìn , shàng hǎi jiē tóu de yuè bǐng xiāng qì jiàn nóng .

China News Network, Shanghai, Sept. 22 (Li Qiuying, Yin Jiajun) — With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the aroma of mooncakes is growing stronger on the streets of Shanghai.

中国新闻网·体育Sep 2026

第六届上海杯象棋大师公开赛闭幕 尹升、王子涵夺冠

dì liù jiè shàng hǎi bēi xiàng qí dà shī gōng kāi sài bì mù yǐn shēng , wáng zǐ hán duó guàn

The 6th Shanghai Cup Chess Masters Open Concludes; Yin Sheng and Wang Zihan Claim the Titles

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

北京师范大学副教授尹一伊分析认为,《欢迎来龙餐馆》带有鲜明的中国文化特点。

běi jīng shī fàn dà xué fù jiào shòu yǐn yī yī fēn xī rèn wéi , huān yíng lái lóng cān guǎn dài yǒu xiān míng de zhōng guó wén huà tè diǎn .

Yin Yiyi, an associate professor at Beijing Normal University, believes that *Welcome to Long's Restaurant* bears distinct characteristics of Chinese culture.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 尹 (yǐn) mean in Chinese?
尹 (yǐn) primarily means "(literary) to administer." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3573 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 尹 have?
尹 is written with 4 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 尹?
The radical associated with 尹 is 尸 (corpse). This radical appears in many characters related to corpse.
What are the components of 尹?
尹 is composed of: 一 (structural), 尸 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻一尸 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 尹?
Common words with 尹 include: 府尹 (fǔ yǐn, "magistrate"); 陈恭尹 (chén gōng yǐn, "Chen Gongyin (1631-1700), early Qing dynasty poet"); 尹潽善 (yǐn pǔ shàn, "Yun Poseon (1897-1990), South Korean Democratic party politician, mayor of Seoul from 1948, president 1960-1962"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
Is 尹 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 尹 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 尹 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.