yǎn
overflow
Water 氵 going in all directions 行
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
yǎn
overflow, spill over, spread out; to spread out; to develop; to overflow; to amplify; superfluous
Most common words with 衍
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
perfunctory | ||
to multiply | ||
to derive | ||
to develop | ||
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。” |
Sources
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