(yuǎn): far

(yuǎn) is a Chinese character meaning “far.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #386 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, walk. Its radical form (walk) appears in many related characters such as (biān, side), (guò, to pass, past), (hái, still, return).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. far

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwalk

Decomposition: ⿺辶元 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adverb/nounyǒng yuǎnforever4
verbyuǎn líto be far from4
adjectiveyáo yuǎndistant6
adjectiveyuǎn chéngremote6
nounyuǎn fāngfar away6
adjectivecháng yuǎnlong-term5
adjectiveshēn yuǎnfar-reaching5
jiǔ yuǎnold5
verbtiào yuǎnlong jump (athletics)5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
yuǎn yuǎndistant
lǎo yuǎnvery far away
shū yuǎnto drift apart
yuǎn chùdistant place
yuǎn zúexcursion
yuǎn jiànforesight
yuǎn dàfar-reaching
yuǎn gǔantiquity
piān yuǎnremote
yuǎn zhēngan expedition, esp. military
yuǎn mén(to go to) distant parts
yuǎn xínga long journey
yuǎn dōngFar East (loanword)
yuǎn hángto travel a great distance by sea or air
yuǎn jǐngscenery in the distance
100
Total compounds
50
As first character
41
As last character
9
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 50 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 9 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.

jìng
0.56017,981 co-occurrences
yáo
0.5559,695 co-occurrences
tiào
0.5534,140 co-occurrences
yǒng
0.51735,731 co-occurrences
zhēng
0.51125,626 co-occurrences
0.50530,533 co-occurrences
wàng
0.45721,570 co-occurrences
shū
0.4516,900 co-occurrences
xiǎng
0.43812,354 co-occurrences
tiào
0.4307,620 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (18)

bùyuǎnqiānlǐHSK 2+

to make light of travelling from afar; to go to the trouble of travelling a long distance

phrase
chòu míng yuǎn yángHSK 5+

stinking reputation; notorious far and wide

phrase
dēng gāo wàng yuǎnHSK 4+

to stand tall and see far (idiom); taking the long and broad view; acute foresight

phrase
gāo jǔ yuǎn dǎoHSK 5+

to leave office for a high and distant place (idiom); to retire and place oneself above the fray

phrase
gāozhānyuǎnzhǔHSK 7+

to stand high and see far; to take a broad and long-term view; to show great foresight

phrase
guì yuǎn jiàn jìnHSK 7+

to revere the past and despise the present (idiom)

phrase
jiànxíngjiànyuǎnHSK 5+

to become increasingly distant; to grow apart

phrase
jìng'éryuǎnzhīHSK 5+

to stay at a respectful distance from; to give a wide berth (to)

phrase
sānjítiàoyuǎnHSK 3+

triple jump

noun
shēnmóuyuǎnlǜHSK 7+

to think deeply and plan carefully; to be circumspect and farsighted

phrase
shènzhōngzhuīyuǎnHSK 5+

to cautiously perform the funeral rituals to deceased parents and sincerely pay homage to them at ceremonies

phrase
yán jìn zhǐ yuǎnHSK 7+

simple words with a profound meaning (idiom)

phrase

Showing 12 of 18 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这家公司景很好,值得长期投资。

Zhè jiā gōngsī yuǎnjǐng hěn hǎo, zhíde chángqī tóuzī.

This company has good prospects and is worth long-term investment.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

超商离家 家长盼鲜奶直送到校

chāo shāng lí jiā yuǎn jiā cháng pàn xiān nǎi zhí sòng dào jiào

Supermarkets are far from home, and parents look forward to fresh milk delivered directly to school

三立新聞網Feb 2026

为了飞更?冬奥跳台滑雪爆阴茎注射歪风

wéi le fēi gēng yuǎn ? dōng ào tiào tái huá xuě bào yīn jīng zhù shè wāi fēng

To fly further? Winter Olympics ski jumping exploded penis injection crooked

LtnFeb 2026

...高传遭拘罚18亿 扛布者:疑被中国政府“洋捕捞”

. . . gāo chuán zāo jū fá 1 8 yì gāng bù zhě : yí bèi zhōng guó zhèng fǔ yuǎn yáng bǔ lāo

... Gao Chuan was detained and fined 1.8 billion cloth bearer: suspected of being "ocean-going fishing" by the Chinese government

百度新闻Feb 2026

伊朗总统重申:伊朗现在不会、将来也永不会寻求核武..

yī lǎng zǒng tǒng chóng shēn yī lǎng xiàn zài bù huì jiāng lái yě yǒng yuǎn bù huì xún qiú hé wǔ . .

Iranian president reiterates: Iran does not, will not and will never seek nuclear weapons...

百度新闻Feb 2026

县城管局:禁燃禁放不松懈 守护平安祥和年

nìng yuǎn xiàn chéng guǎn jú jīn rán jīn fàng bù sōng xiè shǒu hù píng ān xiáng hé nián

Ningyuan County Urban Management Bureau: ban on burning and discharge of no slack guarding the peace and tranquility of the year

Tatoeba

你知道从火车站到市政府有多

Nǐ zhīdào cóng huǒchēzhàn dào shìzhèngfǔ yǒu duōyuǎn?

Do you know how far it is from the station to city hall?

Tatoeba

请问新桥饭店离这儿

Qǐngwèn xīn qiáo fàndiàn lí zhèr yuǎn bù yuǎn?

Excuse me, is Xinqiao Restaurant far from here?

Tatoeba

你的学校离这儿吗?

Nǐ de xuéxiào lí zhèr yuǎn ma?

Is your school far from here?

Tatoeba

你知道显微镜和望镜有什么分别吗?

Nǐ zhīdào xiǎnwēijìng hé wàngyuǎnjìng yǒu shénme fēnbié ma?

Do you know the difference between a microscope and a telescope?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced yuǎn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 远 (yuǎn) mean in Chinese?
远 (yuǎn) primarily means "far." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #386 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 远 and 完?
远 (yuǎn) and 完 (wán) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 辶 vs 宀 (same 元 component).
How many strokes does 远 have?
远 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 远?
The radical associated with 远 is 辶 (walk). This radical appears in many characters related to walk.
What are the components of 远?
远 is composed of: 辶 (semantic), 元 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺辶元 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 远?
Common words with 远 include: 永远 (yǒng yuǎn, "forever"); 远离 (yuǎn lí, "to be far from"); 远远 (yuǎn yuǎn, "distant"); 老远 (lǎo yuǎn, "very far away"); 遥远 (yáo yuǎn, "distant"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 远 (yuǎn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yuǎn: 园 (land used for growing plants), 元 (Yuan dynasty (1279–1368)), 员 (member, staff), 原 (former), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 远 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 远 and the traditional form is 遠.

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.