yǎn

overflow

Water  going in all directions

Components
行 meaning component

  Meaning component

xíngháng

  

walk

氵 meaning component

  Meaning component

shuishuǐ

  

water

Evolution

衍 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
衍 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
衍 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
衍 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
衍 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

yǎn

overflow, spill over, spread out; to spread out; to develop; to overflow; to amplify; superfluous

Most common words with 衍
Freq.
Word
Meaning

敷衍

perfunctory

繁衍

to multiply

衍生

to derive

to develop

敷衍了事

to skimp

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*N-q(r)anʔ

yenX

yǎn

overflow


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 2.3867% of movies

2984th most common character in movies

2437th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Unicode

U+884D

Shuowen

“衍,水朝宗于海也。从水,从行。”


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