眼帘 (yǎnlián): eyes (literary)

Meanings

1 eyes (literary)
2 field of vision
3 eyelid (loosely)

Characters

眼

Examples

推开窗户，一片绿色映入眼帘。

Tuī kāi chuānghù, yí piàn lǜsè yìng rù yǎnlián.

When he pushed open the window, a sea of green came into view.

她的笑容立刻进入了我的眼帘。

Tā de xiàoróng lìkè jìnrùle wǒ de yǎnlián.

Her smile immediately came into my view.

Tips

usage

眼帘 is mostly literary and almost always appears in the fixed pattern 映入眼帘 (yìng rù yǎnlián, 'to be reflected into one's eyes') or 进入眼帘 — both meaning 'to come into view / catch one's eye'. In everyday speech, use 看到 (to see) or 注意到 (to notice) instead.

memory

帘 by itself means 'curtain' (e.g. 窗帘 window curtain), so 眼帘 reads literally as 'eye-curtain' — the eyelid pictured as a small drape over the eye. The whole compound then stretches metaphorically to mean 'what falls within the eyes' = field of vision.