(yǐn): addiction, craving

(yǐn) is a Chinese character meaning “addiction.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2858 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, sickness. Its radical form (illness) appears in many related characters such as (, medicine), (bìng, illness), (téng, ache).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. addiction
  2. craving

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticsickness

Decomposition: ⿸疒隐 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

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

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
yǐn jūn zǐopium eater
shàng yǐnto get into a habit
dú yǐndrug addiction
guò yǐnto satisfy a craving
yān yǐnthe urge to smoke
jiǔ yǐnalcohol addiction
yǐn tóucraving
chéng yǐn xìngaddictiveness
yǐn tóu rerhua variant of 癮頭|瘾头[yin3 tou2]
guò gān yǐnto satisfy a craving with substitutes
xī dú chéng yǐndrug addiction
wǎng luò chéng yǐnInternet addiction
chéng yǐnto be addicted
xìng yǐnsexual addiction
wǎng yǐnInternet addiction
16
Total compounds
19
As first character
75
As last character
6
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 19 as the first character, 75 as the last, and 6 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.

0.495216 co-occurrences
0.494204 co-occurrences
wǎng
0.4802,103 co-occurrences
jiè
0.479666 co-occurrences
lào
0.468798 co-occurrences
0.4661,182 co-occurrences
yào
0.438588 co-occurrences
yān
0.422228 co-occurrences
liáo
0.421366 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.405447 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

yǐn zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The character for "addiction" has a very distinctive writing style that left a deep impression on me.

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

Meta和谷歌在社交媒体成案中被判承担责任

M e t a hé gǔ gē zài shè jiāo méi tǐ chéng yǐn àn zhōng bèi pàn chéng dān zé rèn

Meta and Google have been found liable in a social media addiction case

InvestingMar 2026

公共卫生组织就博彩成问题起诉DraftKings、FanDu...

gōng gòng wèi shēng zǔ zhī jiù bó cǎi chéng yǐn wèn tí qǐ sù D r a f t K i n g s , F a n D u . . .

Public health organizations sue DraftKings, FanDu... over gambling addiction

EttodayMar 2026

孕期碰毒母婴遭殃!怀孕药女性新增医疗补助 守护母婴健康

yùn qī pèng dú mǔ yīng zāo yāng ! huái yùn yào yǐn nǚ xìng xīn zēng yī liáo bǔ zhù shǒu hù mǔ yīng jiàn kāng

Exposure to Drugs During Pregnancy Harms Both Mother and Baby! New Medical Assistance for Pregnant Women with Drug Addictions to Protect the Health of Mothers and Babies

東方日報Mar 2026

【战况S1-9】呢个赛日有保证!前香港短练马师赢G1星河大赛!

zhàn kuàng S 1 9 ne gè sài rì yǒu bǎo zhèng ! qián xiāng gǎng duǎn yǐn liàn mǎ shī yíng G 1 xīng hé dà sài !

[Race Report S1-9] A sure thing on this race day! Former Hong Kong trainer Short Addiction wins the G1 Galaxy Stakes!

It之家Feb 2026

反驳“助长成”指控,YouTube 宣称公司旨在为用...

fǎn bó zhù cháng chéng yǐn zhǐ kòng , Y o u T u b e xuān chèn gōng sī zhǐ zài wéi yòng . . .

Refuting allegations of "fueling addiction", YouTube claims that the company aims to provide services for users...

Tatoeba

美国的罪犯大多是吸毒成君子。

Měiguó de zuìfàn dàduō shì xīdúchéngyǐn de yǐnjūnzǐ.

Many criminals in America are addicted to drugs.

Tatoeba

去年夏天,我们在桥上看焰火看得很过

Qùnián xiàtiān, wǒmen zài qiáo shàng kàn yànhuǒ kàn dehěn guòyǐn.

We enjoyed watching the fireworks on a bridge last summer.

Tatoeba

一个东西和过于那个东西是两回事。

Guòyǐn yī gè dōngxi hé guòyú nàge dōngxi shì liǎnghuíshì.

Getting addicted to something and having too much of something are two different things.

Tatoeba

这个好像说一个人上了“交通”,“艺术”或“政治”。

Zhège hǎoxiàng shuō yīgèrén shàngyǐn le "jiāotōng ","yìshù " huò "zhèngzhì ".

It’s like saying that someone is addicted to “transport”, “art” or “politics”.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yǐn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 瘾 (yǐn) mean in Chinese?
瘾 (yǐn) primarily means "addiction." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2858 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 瘾 have?
瘾 is written with 16 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 瘾?
The radical associated with 瘾 is 疒 (illness). This radical appears in many characters related to illness.
What are the components of 瘾?
瘾 is composed of: 疒 (semantic), 隐 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸疒隐 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 瘾?
Common words with 瘾 include: 瘾君子 (yǐn jūn zǐ, "opium eater"); 上瘾 (shàng yǐn, "to get into a habit"); 毒瘾 (dú yǐn, "drug addiction"); 过瘾 (guò yǐn, "to satisfy a craving"); 烟瘾 (yān yǐn, "the urge to smoke"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 瘾 (yǐn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yǐn: 因 (cause), 阴 (overcast (weather)), 荫 ((bound form) shade (of a tree)), 音 (sound), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 瘾 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 瘾 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.