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阎

閻
yán
noun #80,696

Meanings

  1. 1 gate of an alley; the alley itself
  2. 2 surname Yan

Examples

HSK 5
小孩子说调皮的孩子会被阎王抓走。
Xiǎoháizi shuō tiáopí de háizi huì bèi Yánwáng zhuāzǒu.
Children say a naughty kid will be hauled off by the King of Hell.
HSK 7-9
阎先生是一位德高望重的老中医。
Yán xiānsheng shì yì wèi dégāo-wàngzhòng de lǎo zhōngyī.
Mr. Yan is a well-respected old doctor.

Tips

culture
Most familiar in 阎王 and 阎罗王, the King of Hell who judges the dead in Chinese folk belief, a transliteration of the Sanskrit name Yama. Also a fairly common surname.
register
The 'alley gate' sense is archaic and literary. In modern Chinese 阎 appears almost only in 阎王 and as a surname.

Components

radical
门 mén
gate; door
The gate radical 门 wraps the outside. The character originally meant the gate at the entrance to an alley, so the door element is literal here.
phonetic
臽 xiàn
pit; trap
臽 (a pit) sits inside the gate as the sound element; its reading has shifted to yán. It appears in the same role in 焰.

Stroke Order

阎 yán