闻 (wén): to smell

Meanings

1 to smell
2 to hear
3 news

Characters

闻

wén

hear; smell; news

Contains 门 (door) + 耳 (ear) — an ear at the door, listening.

Examples

你闻到了吗？好香！

Nǐ wéndào le ma? Hǎo xiāng!

Can you smell that? It smells great!

我闻到一股烟味。

Wǒ wéndào yī gǔ yānwèi.

I smell cigarette smoke.

闻一闻这朵花。

Wén yī wén zhè duǒ huā.

Take a sniff of this flower.

Tips

history

In classical Chinese, 闻 meant 'to hear' (still seen in 新闻 = news, literally 'new things heard'). In modern Chinese, 闻 primarily means 'to smell'.

usage

闻到 = to smell (successfully detect a scent). 闻一闻 / 闻闻 = to give something a sniff.

Components

radical

门 mén

door; gate

Outer gate radical — simplified 3-stroke form of 門 (Kangxi #169). The indexing radical when 门 is the outer wrapper. Originally 聞 was about hearing news through a doorway, so the gate is literal — sound passing through. Same wrapper-radical anchors 间 (interval), 问 (ask), 闪 (flash), 闷 (stuffy) — characters where something or someone is at a doorway.

semantic

耳 ěr

ear

Inner ear pictograph — a stylized side-view of an ear with three internal lines for the canal. Reinforces the meaning: 闻 is to hear, to smell, to receive news. The ear-at-the-gate is one of the most literal sensory metaphors in the script. Indexed under Kangxi #169 门 (mén, gate) — the surrounding gate-frame.