HSK · Level 75
60 words
Chinese word
咽
Pronunciation
Pinyinyàn
Meaning
- verbswallow
Example
我刚才咽了口水。wǒ gāng cái yàn le kóu shuǐ
I just swallowed some saliva.
More examples
她听到批评，想反驳却把话咽回去了。tā tīng dào pī píng xiǎng fǎn bó què bǎ huà yàn huí qù le
She heard the criticism and wanted to argue back, but swallowed her words.
Core concept
A mouthful moves from the mouth down through the throat in a continuous act of passage.
Common phrases
咽住yàn zhù
swallow back
把话咽回去bǎ huà yàn huí qù
swallow one's words
Similar words
吞tūn: Deliberately taking something in the mouth and swallowing it down through the throat.
吞咽tūn yàn: Moving saliva or food from the mouth through the throat by swallowing.
吞服tūn fú: Putting medicine or food in the mouth and deliberately swallowing it.
Definition in Chinese
将口中的东西吞下去的动作，侧重吞咽的过程，也常用于表示咽喉部位的合成词中。jiāng kǒu zhōng de dōng xī tūn xià qù de dòng zuò cè zhòng tūn yàn de guò chéng yě cháng yòng yú biǎo shì yān hóu bù wèi de hé chéng cí zhōng
Word origin
咽 (yàn, "swallow") is a phonosemantic character: 口 (kǒu, "mouth") marks the meaning area, while 因 (yīn, "cause") supplies the sound, and the character also serves in throat-related terms.
Usage tips
- In everyday speech, this verb can describe an automatic bodily action involving saliva as well as food or drink, so it is not limited to deliberate eating.