掩 (yǎn): to cover up

Meanings

1 to cover up
2 to conceal
3 to close (a door)
4 to launch a surprise attack (literary)

Characters

掩

yǎn

to cover; to conceal; to close gently

Examples

她用手掩住了嘴巴。

Tā yòng shǒu yǎn zhù le zuǐba.

She covered her mouth with her hand.

他掩上门，悄悄地走了。

Tā yǎn shàngmén, qiāoqiāo de zǒu le.

He closed the door gently and left quietly.

Tips

usage

掩 implies a gentle or partial action: 掩门 is to close a door softly (not slam), 掩面 is to cover one's face. For forceful covering, use 盖 (gài) instead.

memory

掩耳盗铃 (yǎn ěr dào líng) — 'cover ears while stealing a bell' — is a famous idiom meaning to deceive oneself. A great way to remember 掩 = cover/conceal.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form of 手)

Left hand radical — side-form of 手 (Kangxi #64). Anchors 掩 in the great family of hand-action verbs: 拿 (take), 推 (push), 拍 (clap), 抓 (grab), 抱 (hold). 掩 specifically marks a covering/closing motion of the hand — you cover your mouth, close a door, hide your face, all with this radical's hand.

phonetic

奄 yǎn

sudden; cover (here phonetic + semantic)

Right 奄 supplies the sound — yǎn unchanged. 奄 itself pictures a person 大 with a covering, meaning 'to cover suddenly, envelop'. So the semantics align: hand 扌 + cover 奄 = to cover with the hand. Same phonetic family: 庵 nunnery, 俺 I (dialectal), 淹 submerge — all share the yǎn / ān reading.