(yīng): hero, England

(yīng) is a Chinese character meaning “hero, england.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #371 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, flower. Its radical form (grass) appears in many related characters such as (huā, flower), (chá, tea), (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. hero, England

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticflower

Decomposition: ⿱艹央 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
nounyīng xiónghero6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yīng guóUnited Kingdom (UK)
yīng lǐmile (unit of length equal to 1.609 km)
yīng chǐfoot (unit of length equal to 0.3048 m)
yīng yǔEnglish (language)
yīng cùninch (unit of length equal to 2.54 cm.)
yīng jùnhandsome
yīng gé lánEngland
yīng bàngpound sterling
yīng wénEnglish (language)
jīng yīngcream
yīng yǒngheroic
yīng mǔacre
yīng shìBritish-style
yīng míngwise
yīng jūnBritish army
100
Total compounds
59
As first character
28
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 59 as the first character, 28 as the last, and 13 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.

xióng
0.597257,431 co-occurrences
bàng
0.59526,964 co-occurrences
chǐ
0.591199,236 co-occurrences
cùn
0.57686,453 co-occurrences
0.525187,686 co-occurrences
guó
0.522638,196 co-occurrences
wén
0.488498,443 co-occurrences
0.473225,174 co-occurrences
lán
0.44588,452 co-occurrences
0.4239,876 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

Dàyīng DìguóHSK 6+

the British Empire

Dàyīng GuóxiéHSK 6+

Commonwealth of Nations; British Commonwealth

hányīngjǔhuáHSK 7+

to savour the merits of a literary work; to appreciate the subtleties in a literary work by rumination

phrase
mínzú yīngxióngHSK 6+

national hero; folk hero; people's hero

noun
tiāndùyīngcáiHSK 7+

The Heaven is jealous of talents. (used to express regret to a talented person who died young)

phrase
wúmíngyīngxióngHSK 6+

unsung hero; unknown soldier

phrase
yīngniánzǎoshìHSK 7+

to pass away at the prime of one's life; to die young

phrase
yīngxiónghǎohànHSK 6+

heroes

phrase
yīngxióngjiùměiHSK 6+

a (male) hero saves a damsel in distress

phrase
姿yīng zī sà shuǎngHSK 7+

(of a person) valiant and formidable-looking; to carry oneself tall

phrase

Showing 10 of 11 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他是我们公司的雄,解决了那个难题。

Tā shì wǒmen gōngsī de yīngxióng, jiějué le nà gè nántí.

He is the hero of our company; he solved that difficult problem.

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

...普15%全球关税为中国送上“减税大礼”,法日德成“最大输家”-FX168

. . . pǔ 1 5 quán qiú guān shuì wéi zhōng guó sòng shàng jiǎn shuì dà lǐ , yīng fǎ rì dé chéng zuì dà shū jiā F X 1 6 8

... The 15% global tariff has sent a "tax reduction gift" to China, and Britain, France, Japan and Germany have become the "biggest losers" - FX168

Hk01.comFeb 2026

超|北伦敦打吡阿仙奴作客4:1胜热刺 伊...

yīng chāo běi lún dūn dǎ 吡 ā xiān nú zuò kè 4 : 1 shèng rè cì yī . . .

Premier League|North London Derby Arsenal defeated Tottenham Hotspur 4:1 away...

百度新闻Feb 2026

未必是坏事!南马降级成精标 马拉松将回归体验本质

wèi bì shì huài shì ! nán mǎ jiàng jí chéng jīng yīng biāo mǎ lā sōng jiāng huí guī tǐ yàn běn zhì

It's not necessarily a bad thing! South Malaysia is relegated to an elite marathon and will return to the essence of experience

百度新闻Feb 2026

伟达美股盘前涨近2%

yīng wěi dá měi gǔ pán qián zhǎng jìn

NVIDIA shares rise nearly 2% in premarket trading

百度新闻Feb 2026

点亮中国红!国地标伦敦眼披上中国春节装扮

diǎn liàng zhōng guó hóng ! yīng guó dì biāo lún dūn yǎn pī shǎng zhōng guó chūn jié zhuāng bàn

Light Up China Red! London Eye Adorns Itself in Chinese New Year Decorations

Tatoeba

你开始学习语了吗?

Nǐ kāishǐ xuéxí Yīngyǔ le ma?

Have you begun studying English?

Tatoeba

是谁教她怎么说语的?

Shì shéi jiāo tā zěnme shuō Yīngyǔ de?

Who taught her how to speak English?

Tatoeba

这鸟你们用语怎么称呼?

Zhè niǎo nǐmen yòng Yīngyǔ zěnme chēnghu?

What do you call this bird in English?

Tatoeba

怎么会有人认为不懂语就不能生存?

Zěnme huì yǒurén rènwéi bù dǒng Yīngyǔ jiù bù néng shēngcún?

Why do they say you have to learn English to survive?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yīng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 英 (yīng) mean in Chinese?
英 (yīng) primarily means "hero, england." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #371 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 英 and 殃?
英 (yīng) and 殃 (yāng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 歹 (same 央 component).
How many strokes does 英 have?
英 is written with 8 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 英?
The radical associated with 英 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 英?
英 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 央 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹央 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 英?
Common words with 英 include: 英雄 (yīng xióng, "hero"); 英国 (yīng guó, "United Kingdom (UK)"); 英里 (yīng lǐ, "mile (unit of length equal to 1.609 km)"); 英尺 (yīng chǐ, "foot (unit of length equal to 0.3048 m)"); 英语 (yīng yǔ, "English (language)"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 英 (yīng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yīng: 映 (to reflect (light)), 应 (should, to respond), 婴 (infant), 鹰 (eagle), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 英 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 英 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.