饮 (yǐn) is a Chinese character meaning “to drink”. It is written from 饣 (food radical (simplified form of 食)) and 欠 (to yawn; to owe; to lack), side by side, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “to drink”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
饣 + 欠
Left–right structure
Structure from: 现代字形拆分，经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画数核验（饣3 + 欠4 = 7）
Memory aid
The food radical 饣 on the left, and 欠 — a figure with an open mouth — on the right. Mouth open beside something edible: you drink it down.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 饮料yǐn liàobeverage; drink饮 = yǐn
- 饮水yǐn shuǐto drink water; drinking water饮 = yǐnspoken asyín shuǐ
Go deeper
All readings
to drink
to drink; a drink; beverage
喝；也指可以喝的东西。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 饮料yǐn liàobeverage; drink饮 = yǐn
- 饮水yǐn shuǐto drink water; drinking water饮 = yǐnspoken asyín shuǐ
Rare readings, not taught: yìn
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 饮 mean?
饮 (yǐn) means to drink; a drink; beverage.
How do you pronounce 饮?
It is pronounced yǐn.
What parts is 饮 made of?
饣 (food radical (simplified form of 食)) and 欠 (to yawn; to owe; to lack), side by side. The recorded source is: 现代字形拆分，经 hanzi-writer-data 笔画数核验（饣3 + 欠4 = 7）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 饮 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 饮?
饣. 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 饮?
Common ones are 饮料 and 饮水. The reading of 饮 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.