yān

smoke

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components
火 meaning component

  Meaning component

huǒ

  

fire

垔 sound component

  Sound component

yīn

  

dam up, block, restrain

Evolution

煙 Bronze script Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)

Bronze script

Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)
煙 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
煙 Clerical script Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Clerical script

Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)
煙 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

yān

smoke, soot; opium; tobacco, cigarettes; cigarette or pipe tobacco; CL:[gēn]; smoke; mist; vapour; CL:|[lǚ]; tobacco plant; (of the eyes) to be irritated by smoke

Most common words with 煙
Freq.
Word
Meaning

smoke

抽烟

to smoke (a cigarette, tobacco)

吸烟

to smoke

香烟

cigarette

烟花

fireworks

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[q]ˤi[n]

'en

yān

smoke


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 33.3974% of movies

961st most common character in movies

967th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

13

Simplified

Unicode

U+7159

Shuowen

“煙,火气也。从火,垔聲。烟,或从因;,古文;,籀文从宀。”


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