陨 (yǔn) is a Chinese character meaning “to fall from the sky or from a height”. It is written from 阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 员 (member; person in a role), side by side, and takes 9 strokes.
Build the character for “to fall from the sky”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
阝 + 员
Left–right structure
- 阝 left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑) · fù meaning
- 员 member; person in a role · yuán sound
Structure from: 现代字形拆分：陨 = 阝(阜) + 员；Unicode U+9668 radical 170 (阜)；hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验：0–1 笔为阝(2 画)，2–8 笔为员(7 画)，合计 9 画
Memory aid
阝 on the left is a steep bank of earth. 员 on the right is a member of the crew standing at its edge. One slip, and the member falls from the height — 陨 means to fall from above, like a meteorite.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 陨石yǔn shímeteorite陨 = yǔn
- 陨落yǔn luòto fall from the sky; (of a great person) to pass away陨 = yǔn
Go deeper
All readings
to fall from the sky
to fall from the sky or from a height; (figuratively) to perish
从高空坠落；也比喻死亡、消逝。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 陨石yǔn shímeteorite陨 = yǔn
- 陨落yǔn luòto fall from the sky; (of a great person) to pass away陨 = yǔn
Origin
A phono-semantic compound: 阜 (written 阝 on the left) is a mound or bank of earth, and 员 (traditional 員) supplies the sound. 说文解字 glosses 隕 as "falling down from a height" — tumbling off the bank.
Source: 说文解字：隕，从高下也。从𨸏員聲。
Sound component
员 family
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 陨 mean?
陨 (yǔn) means to fall from the sky or from a height; (figuratively) to perish.
How do you pronounce 陨?
It is pronounced yǔn.
What parts is 陨 made of?
阝 (left form: mound (阜); right form: city or settlement (邑)) and 员 (member; person in a role), side by side. The recorded source is: 现代字形拆分：陨 = 阝(阜) + 员；Unicode U+9668 radical 170 (阜)；hanzi-writer-data 笔画核验：0–1 笔为阝(2 画)，2–8 笔为员(7 画)，合计 9 画. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 陨 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 陨?
阜. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 陨?
Common ones are 陨石 and 陨落. The reading of 陨 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.