淹 (yān) is a Chinese character meaning “to flood”. It is written from 氵 (water (left-side form)) and 奄 (to cover; (in 奄奄) faint, feeble), side by side, and takes 11 strokes.
Build the character for “to flood”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
氵 + 奄
Left–right structure
Structure from: 说文解字: 淹，水。出越巂徼外，東入若水。从水，奄聲 (modern form checked against hanzi-writer-data strokes 0–2 氵, 3–10 奄)
Memory aid
Water (氵) rises until it covers (奄) everything — the land is flooded, submerged.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
11 strokes
In real words
- 淹没yān mòto submerge; to flood; to drown out淹 = yān
- 淹死yān sǐto drown淹 = yān
Go deeper
All readings
to flood; to submerge
to flood; to submerge; to drown; to soak
大水漫过、浸没；也指被液体浸泡。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 淹没yān mòto submerge; to flood; to drown out淹 = yān
- 淹死yān sǐto drown淹 = yān
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 淹 mean?
淹 (yān) means to flood; to submerge; to drown; to soak.
How do you pronounce 淹?
It is pronounced yān.
What parts is 淹 made of?
氵 (water (left-side form)) and 奄 (to cover; (in 奄奄) faint, feeble), side by side. The recorded source is: 说文解字: 淹，水。出越巂徼外，東入若水。从水，奄聲 (modern form checked against hanzi-writer-data strokes 0–2 氵, 3–10 奄). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 淹 have?
11. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 淹?
氵. 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 淹?
Common ones are 淹没 and 淹死. The reading of 淹 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.