银 (yín): silver, bank

银 (yín) is a Chinese character meaning “silver, bank.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 钅 (semantic) and 艮 (phonetic). It ranks #757 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 银 money. Its radical form 钅 (metal) appears in many related characters such as 钱 (qián, money), 错 (cuò, wrong, mistake), 钟 (zhōng, clock, bell).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. silver, bank

Etymology & Origin

银

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿰钅艮 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 银

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
银行nounyín hángbank3
银行卡nounyín háng kǎbank card3
银牌nounyín páisilver medal6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
银色nounyín sèsilver (color)
银河proper-nounyín héMilky Way
收银verbshōu yínto receive payment
银行家yín háng jiābanker
银河系proper-nounyín hé xìMilky Way Galaxy
银器nounyín qìsilverware
银币nounyín bìsilver coin
银幕nounyín mùmovie screen
银子nounyín zimoney
收银机nounshōu yín jīcash register
水银nounshuǐ yínmercury
金银nounjīn yíngold and silver
银座proper-nounyín zuòGinza (district in Tokyo)
银行业yín háng yèbanking
银杏nounyín xìngginkgo
100
Total compounds
68
As first character
20
As last character
12
As middle character

银 appears in 100 compound words: 68 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 12 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 银 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

牌pái
0.56221,660 co-occurrences
枚méi
0.5247,140 co-occurrences
币bì
0.5044,962 co-occurrences
行xíng
0.49680,678 co-occurrences
漾yàng
0.49110 co-occurrences
贷dài
0.4511,082 co-occurrences
兑duì
0.450528 co-occurrences
账zhàng
0.444798 co-occurrences
铸zhù
0.436990 co-occurrences
铜tóng
0.4342,032 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

穿金戴银chuānjīndàiyínHSK 4+

to be gorgeously dressed and lavishly adorned

phrase
花旗银行Huāqí YínhángHSK 6+

Citibank; First National City Bank

中央银行zhōngyāng yínhángHSK 6+

central bank

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

银行周末不办理对公业务,请在工作日来办理。

Yínháng zhōumò bù bànlǐ duìgōng yèwù, qǐng zài gōngzuò rì lái bànlǐ.

Banks don't handle corporate business on weekends; please come on a workday.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...谷爱凌、李方慧摘得自由式滑雪女子U池金、银牌

. . . gǔ ài líng , lǐ fāng huì zhāi dé zì yóu shì huá xuě nǚ zǐ U chí jīn , yín pái

... Gu Ailing and Li Fanghui won gold and silver medals in the women's U pool in freestyle skiing

三立新聞網Feb 2026

摩根大通“1原因”关闭川普银行帐户

mó gēn dà tōng 1 yuán yīn guān bì chuān pǔ yín háng zhàng hù

JPMorgan Chase closed Trump's bank account for "1 reason"

百度新闻Feb 2026

小伙出售前女友送的银手镯,剪开发现内芯为30克高纯..

xiǎo huǒ chū shòu qián nǚ yǒu sòng de yín shǒu 镯 , jiǎn kāi fā xiàn nèi xīn wéi kè gāo chún . .

The guy sold his ex-girlfriend to send the silver bracelet, cut open and found that the core for 30 grams of high-purity...

百度新闻Feb 2026

深夜,黄金、白银、原油齐涨,美股三大指数集体上涨丨..

shēn yè , huáng jīn bái yín yuán yóu qí zhǎng , měi gǔ sān dà zhǐ shǔ jí tī shǎng zhǎng 丨 . .

Late at night, gold, silver, crude oil rose, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose collectively 丨....

百度新闻Feb 2026

盘核桃、叠衣服、穿烤肠,银河通用春晚机器人是怎么“..

pán hé táo dié yī fú chuān kǎo cháng , yín hé tōng yòng chūn wǎn jī qì rén shì zěn má . .

Cracking walnuts, folding clothes, threading sausages—how does the Galaxy Universal Spring Festival Gala robot do it?

Tatoeba

地铁站的附近有银行吗?

Dìtiězhàn de fùjìn yǒu yínháng ma?

Is there a bank near the station?

Tatoeba

你知道银行什么时候关门吗?

Nǐ zhīdào yínháng shénmeshíhou guānmén ma?

Do you have any idea when the bank closes?

Tatoeba

请问,中国银行在哪儿?

Qǐngwèn, Zhōngguó Yínháng zài nǎr?

Excuse me, where's the Bank of China?

Tatoeba

你能分辨银和锡吗?

Nǐ néng fēnbiàn yín hé xī ma?

Can you tell silver and tin apart?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 钅 (money) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 银 (yín) mean in Chinese?
银 (yín) primarily means "silver, bank." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #757 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 银 and 很?
银 (yín) and 很 (hěn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 钅 vs 彳 (same 艮 component).
How many strokes does 银 have?
银 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 银?
The radical associated with 银 is 钅 (metal). This radical appears in many characters related to metal.
What are the components of 银?
银 is composed of: 钅 (semantic), 艮 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰钅艮 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 银?
Common words with 银 include: 银行 (yín háng, "bank"); 银行卡 (yín háng kǎ, "bank card"); 银色 (yín sè, "silver (color)"); 银河 (yín hé, "Milky Way"); 收银 (shōu yín, "to receive payment"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 银 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 银 and the traditional form is 銀.

Practice writing 银 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.