燕

鷰
yàn
#1,703 most
frequent character
variant of 燕[yan4]

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

燕 is a picture of a swallow: head with mouth 廿, wings 北, and tail 灬. It first meant the bird. Read yān, it names an ancient state, borrowed only for its sound.

Drawn as: swallow; head with mouth; wings; tail

燕 as a component in other characters

sound1 character
嚥

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Same Characters, Different Readings

燕Yan1
Yan, a vassal state of Zhou in present-day Hebei and Liaoning
燕yàn
swallow (family Hirundinidae)

Homophones

厌yàn
(bound form) to loathe
验yàn
to examine, to test, to check

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