烟霾 (yānmái): smoke and haze

Meanings

1 smoke and haze
2 smog
3 smoky atmospheric pollution

Characters

烟

Examples

工厂排放的烟霾污染了整个城市。

Gōngchǎng páifàng de yānmái wūrǎn le zhěnggè chéngshì.

Smoke and haze from the factories has polluted the whole city.

山林大火过后，空中弥漫着烟霾。

Shānlín dàhuǒ guòhòu, kōngzhōng mímànzhe yānmái.

After the forest fire, smoke and haze filled the air.

Tips

memory

烟 (yān) = 'smoke', 霾 (mái) = 'haze / dust-fog' (the same 霾 in 雾霾 wùmái 'smog'). Stack the two: 'smoke + haze' = the murky atmosphere of fires or industry. The 雨 radical at the top of 霾 places it among weather phenomena (雨 'rain', 雪 'snow', 雾 'fog').

register

Literary or news-register. Modern air-quality reporting almost always uses 雾霾 (wùmái, 'fog-haze') for general urban smog, while 烟霾 carries specifically the 'smoke' connotation — wildfires, slash-and-burn farming, industrial fumes.