员 (yuán): member, staff

员 (yuán) is a Chinese character meaning “member, staff.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (structural) and 贝 (semantic). It ranks #200 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 员 money. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. member, staff

Etymology & Origin

员

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿱口贝 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 员

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
演员nounyǎn yuánactor4
人员nounrén yuánstaff4
成员nounchéng yuánmember5
队员nounduì yuánteam member4
员工nounyuán gōngstaff5
运动员nounyùn dòng yuánathlete3
飞行员nounfēi xíng yuánpilot5
官员nounguān yuánofficial (in an organization or government)6
会员nounhuì yuánmember4
职员nounzhí yuánoffice worker6
学员nounxué yuánstudent6
公务员noungōng wù yuáncivil servant5
伤员nounshāng yuánwounded person6
乘务员nounchéng wù yuánattendant on an airplane, train, boat etc5
售票员nounshòu piào yuánticket seller4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
委员会nounwěi yuán huìcommittee
议员nounyì yuánmember (of a legislative body)
参议员nouncān yì yuánsenator
球员nounqiú yuán(ball sports) player
警员nounjǐng yuánpolice officer
服务员nounfú wù yuánwaiter
雇员noungù yuánemployee
船员nounchuán yuánsailor
管理员nounguǎn lǐ yuánmanager
陪审员nounpéi shěn yuánjuror
宇航员nounyǔ háng yuánastronaut
推销员nountuī xiāo yuánsales representative
驾驶员nounjià shǐ yuánpilot
救生员nounjiù shēng yuánlifeguard
店员noundiàn yuánshop assistant
102
Total compounds
4
As first character
95
As last character
1
As middle character

员 appears in 102 compound words: 4 as the first character, 95 as the last, and 1 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 员 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

委wěi
0.665427,492 co-occurrences
会huì
0.661337,586 co-occurrences
运yùn
0.600140,932 co-occurrences
动dòng
0.579153,754 co-occurrences
党dǎng
0.51558,998 co-occurrences
议yì
0.51097,886 co-occurrences
演yǎn
0.479120,778 co-occurrences
成chéng
0.478198,842 co-occurrences
务wù
0.47447,818 co-occurrences
球qiú
0.44877,508 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (14)

从业人员cóngyè rényuánHSK 3+

employed personnel; employed person

noun
公务人员gōng wù rén yuánHSK 3+

government functionary

phrase
公职人员gōngzhí rényuánHSK 4+

civil servant; government employee; public official

noun
技术人员jìshù rényuánHSK 4+

technician; technical personnel; technical staff

noun
家庭成员jiātíng chéngyuánHSK 4+

family member

noun
立法委员lìfǎ wěiyuánHSK 6+

legislator; member of the Legislative Yuan

noun
临时演员línshí yǎnyuánHSK 5+

extra; supernumerary

noun
女乘务员nǚ chéng wù yuánHSK 4+

stewardess; female flight attendant

phrase
司售人员sī shòu rén yuánHSK 4+

bus crew; driver and conductor

phrase
随行人员suí xíng rén yuánHSK 4+

entourage; retinue

phrase
替身演员tì shēn yǎn yuánHSK 5+

body double; stunt double

phrase
演艺人员yǎn yì rén yuánHSK 4+

entertainer; performer

phrase

Showing 12 of 14 idioms containing 员.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

公司为新员工安排了为期一周的入职培训。

Gōngsī wèi xīn yuángōng ānpái le wéiqī yì zhōu de rùzhí péixùn.

The company arranged a one-week onboarding training for new employees.

百度新闻Feb 2026

视频丨空间站的年夜饭都有什么?听航天员报菜名收祝福

shì pín 丨 kōng jiān zhàn de nián yè fàn dū yǒu shén má ? yǐn háng tiān yuán bào cài míng shōu zhù fú

Video 丨What is the New Year's Eve dinner on the space station? I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it. I'm going to be able to make it.

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨95后潜水员与千年白鹤梁的水下之约

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hòu qián shuǐ yuán yú qiān nián bái hè liáng de shuǐ xià zhī yāo

Spring Festival at the Grassroots Level | Post-95 Diver's Underwater Encounter with the Millennia-Old Baiheliang

百度新闻Feb 2026

北京台春晚“演员”:身高95cm,体重20kg,会..

běi jīng tái chūn wǎn yǎn yuán shēn gāo , tī chóng , huì . .

Beijing TV Spring Festival Gala "Performer": Height 95cm, Weight 20kg, Can...

百度新闻Feb 2026

大年初一全社会跨区域人员流动量超2.1亿人次 全国..

dà nián chū yī quán shè huì kuà ōu yù rén yuán liú dòng liáng chāo . yì rén cì quán guó . .

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, cross-regional travel across the country exceeded 210 million trips.

百度新闻Feb 2026

...愿行 温暖糖球会——青岛公交2路青年党团员助..

. . . yuàn háng wēn nuǎn táng qiú huì qīng dǎo gōng jiāo lù qīng nián dǎng tuán yuán zhù . .

Warm Sugar Ball Club — Qingdao Bus Route 2 Youth Party and League Members Assist...

Tatoeba

这位女士是不是推销员?

Zhèwèi nǚshì shìbùshì tuīxiāoyuán?

Is this lady a saleswoman?

Tatoeba

感谢所有的翻译人员!

Gǎnxiè suǒyǒu de fānyì rényuán!

Thanks to all the translators!

Tatoeba

我对外籍员工没有偏见。

Wǒ duì wàijí yuángōng méiyǒu piānjiàn.

I don't have a prejudice against foreign workers.

Tatoeba

仅三分之一的成员出席了会议。

Jǐn sān fēn zhī yī de chéngyuán chūxí le huìyì.

Only one third of the members turned up at the meeting.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 贝 (money) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced yuán

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 员 (yuán) mean in Chinese?
员 (yuán) primarily means "member, staff." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #200 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 员 have?
员 is written with 7 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 员?
The radical associated with 员 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 员?
员 is composed of: 口 (structural), 贝 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱口贝 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 员?
Common words with 员 include: 演员 (yǎn yuán, "actor"); 人员 (rén yuán, "staff"); 成员 (chéng yuán, "member"); 队员 (duì yuán, "team member"); 委员会 (wěi yuán huì, "committee"). There are over 102 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 员 (yuán)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yuán: 原 (former), 远 (far), 院 (courtyard), 元 (Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 员 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 员 and the traditional form is 員.

Practice writing 员 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.