DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

淹

Mandarin · pinyin yān

to flood
to submerge
to drown
to irritate the skin (of liquids)
to delay

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淹: yān · drown; cover with liquid, steep

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1 · yan1

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1character link41same-tone records

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 6 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jim1

Cantonese word readings for 淹. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character

to soak; to flood; to drown; to submerge
(of skin) to be tingling from sweat
(literary) wide; deep; thorough
(literary) to stay; to stop over; to be detained
(literary) to delay; to take a long time
(literary) slow; sluggish

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack