厌 (yàn) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

厌

yàn[yan4]Tone 4

loathe, dislike, be fed up with

HSK 5

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厭

Guru Deep Dive

English · loathe, dislike, be fed up with

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:6

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (厂 cliff/shelter radical) acts as a protective overhanging roof, while the right side packs several horizontal strokes tightly underneath. Ensure the right side does not sag below the left.

Simplification Logic: The traditional form 厭 contains a dog (犬) and a mouth (口) under a cliff, whereas the simplified form 厌 replaces the complex internal structure with a simple double-back stroke under the cliff.

1. Meaning

to loathe, to detest, to be fed up with

to satiate or satisfy (literary)

VerbFormal / Literary (often bound in modern compound words)Bound morpheme#emotions#attitudes#psychological state

Sample Usage

讨厌
tǎoyàn
to dislike, annoying
厌倦
yànjuàn
to be weary of, to be sick of

2. Sound

/[jan⁵¹]/Tone: 51

厌

yànyan4

`(51)

=yàn

Initial Consonant

Type: Palatal Glide (Zero Initial)

Sounds like: Zero initial glide y-

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Acts as a bridge into 'i' or 'ü' vowel sounds.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue starts neutral and glides quickly into the front open-mid vowel [a].

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -an rhymes with 'on' in 'con' or 'an' in 'man' (with a broader 'a')

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ahn'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and plunges straight down like an emphatic 'No!' or a sharp command.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the fourth tone falling pitch with a neutral tone or a third tone dipping contour due to rapid speech in compounds like tǎoyàn.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, downward chop of the hand, mimicking an abrupt expression of disgust or rejection.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 6 strokes

4. Components

Radical 厂 · Cliff Radical (cliff, shelter, overhang)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 厂 (Provides the structural cliff/shelter setting of being cornered or trapped.)

A person sheltering under a cliff (厂) who has eaten so much they are completely stuffed and fed up with the food.

厂 Cliff or shelter
犬 Contained within the traditional form indicating an animalistic aversion

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

4· Phonetic Root: 犬 (quǎn)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally depicted a dog hiding under a cliff or cave, expressing a sense of shrinking away, hiding, or feeling disgusted and rejecting something.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from the physical act of shrinking away under shelter to the psychological state of loathing, detesting, or being completely satiated to the point of disgust.

In classical texts, 厭 frequently meant 'to satisfy' (as in being full of food), which later inverted into its modern psychological sense of being 'fed up'.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

yếm

Corresponds to the Vietnamese sắc tone (high rising), while Mandarin uses the fourth tone.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: エン (en) / イツ (itsu) / Kun: 厭.きる (akiru), 厭.う (itou)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

염

Sound Shift Bridge: The -an final and initial y- bridge naturally across Sino-Xenic readings like Japanese 'en' and Korean 'yeom'.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You are standing under a cold cliff shelter (厂), completely fed up and loathing (yàn) the dreary weather that has trapped you there for days.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

压

yāto press, to pressureUses earth (土) under the cliff instead of the aversion component.

餍

yànsatiated, gorgedAdds the food (食) radical on the left to mean full of food.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

压(yā)

Look at the base: 厌 has a complex interior stroke pattern for loathing, whereas 压 has a simple horizontal and vertical cross (土) meaning pressure.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他这个人总是抱怨这抱怨那，真让人[___]。

Clue: tǎo yàn

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the simplified character 厌 with 压 (yā - to press) because of the shared 厂 cliff radical.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see the character 厌 paired with 倦 in 厌倦, what core psychological emotion does it convey?

Production: How do you write the character for 'to loathe / be fed up with' (yàn) starting with the cliff radical?

厌yànloathe, dislike, be fed up with

Speed:

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