Chinese word

淹

Pronunciation

Pinyinyān

Meaning

  • verbflood

Example

下大雨，村里的道路被水淹了。xià dà yǔ cūn lǐ de dào lù bèi shuǐ yān le

When it rained heavily, the village roads were flooded.

Illustration for 淹 (flood)

More examples

他不小心把手机掉进水里，手机被水淹坏了。tā bù xiǎo xīn bǎ shǒu jī diào jìn shuǐ lǐ shǒu jī bèi shuǐ yān huài le

He accidentally dropped his phone into the water, and the water flooded it and damaged it.

Core concept

Water rises until it covers a place or thing, leaving it submerged and unusable, and can overwhelm a living creature.

Common phrases

  • 被淹没bèi yān mò

    be flooded

  • 把...淹没bǎ yān mò

    flood ___

Similar words

淹没yān mò: Completely cover a place or thing with water, leaving it underwater.
浸没jìn mò: Become completely submerged in liquid.
泛滥fàn làn: Overflow beyond banks or limits and spread water across a wide area.
沉没chén mò: Sink beneath the surface of the water.

Definition in Chinese

水将某物或某地覆盖，使其陷入水中或不能使用；也可指使人或动物因水窒息而死。shuǐ jiāng mǒu wù huò mǒu dì fù gài shǐ qí xiàn rù shuǐ zhōng huò bù néng shǐ yòng yě kě zhí shǐ rén huò dòng wù yīn shuǐ zhì xī ér sǐ

Word origin

淹 (yān, "to flood") is a phono-semantic character in which 氵 (shuǐ, "water") identifies the semantic field and 奄 (yǎn, "cover") chiefly provides the pronunciation.

Usage tips

  • The affected place often appears as the subject of a passive report after heavy rain, which keeps attention on the road, village, or building rather than on the water causing the damage.

Other meanings

  • immerseverb
  • drownverb

Opposites

Related words

  • 淹没yān mòfloodverb
  • 淹死yān sǐdrownverb

Word lists with this word