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yīn

Meanings

CC-CEDICT

yīn
  1. 1.sound
  2. 2.noise
  3. 3.note (of musical scale)
  4. 4.tone
  5. 5.news
  6. 6.syllable
  7. 7.reading (phonetic value of a character)

CC-CEDICT · CC BY-SA

Wiktionary

  1. 1.sound; voice; tone
  2. 2.news; tidings
  3. 3.pitch; note (Classifier: 粒 c)
  4. 4.pronunciation; syllable

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Etymology

Ideogram (指事) – based on the structure of 言, with an additional short horizontal stroke inside the 口 (“mouth”), forming a shape similar to 甘. The Shuowen Jiezi describes the structure as 从言含一 ("from 言 containing 一"). The added stroke graphically seals the mouth, likely representing partially closed or muffled vocalization, in contrast with 言 (“articulate speech”). This is consistent with the *ʔəm word family, which clusters around meanings of covering and closure: compare homophones 瘖 (*ʔum) and 喑 (*ʔəmʔ, “mute”), and 韽 (*ʔˤəm, “faint, weak sound”). See also 言.

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Stroke order

Components

Components from cjk-decomp · MIT

Example sentences

Sentences from Tatoeba · CC-BY 2.0 FR

More examples & usage (AI)

Synonyms

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Derived terms

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Related words