Chinese Characters Starting with "Y start"

Every character has an origin. Discover the pictographs, myths, and history behind each Chinese character — with pinyin, stroke order, HSK level, and audio pronunciation.

yuàn

This character’s heart radical hides a linguistic

yán

This six-stroke character — one of only 7 in Chin

yòu

Its ancient oracle bone form showed a wobbling inf

屿

This ‘islet’ isn’t just small — it’s a mounta

This 'reside' character isn’t about addresses—it

yàn

Its roof radical 宀 signals 'gathering under shelt

yùn

This 5-stroke character began as a Bronze Age draw

Originally a ritual dance performed by a woman to

yīn

This character’s ‘reason’ radical (因) isn’t j

Born as a kneeling person beside the setting sun,

Born as a walled fief guarded by spears, 域 evolve

yuán

Originally a ritual vessel’s perfect curve, 圆 ev

yǎo

Its ancient form shows jaws locking like crossed b

yún

Born as a pictograph of a ladle scooping broth, th

亿

Though it means ‘100 million,’ 亿 began as a poe

Though it means 'to depend on,' 依 began as 'perso

A 3,000-year-old 'I' that refuses to be casual —

This single-stroke character — shaped like a spro

Born as a sheep-on-a-warrior pictograph 3,000 year

yán

This 10-stroke character hides an ancient salt-boi

This ‘duck’ character hides a quacking pun: its

yàn

This 'examination' character evolved from ancient

yǎng

This character began as a pictograph of a sheep un

This 'advance' character hides a walking person ru

yuè

Originally a gatekeeper inspecting travelers at a

yuè

Though it means ‘key’, 钥’s nine strokes encode

yāo

This 'invite' character contains a walking radical

yíng

This 17-stroke 'win' character hides a turtle — s

This 7-stroke character began as 'speech + change'

This 'friendship' character hides a quiet revoluti

yán

Originally a Bronze Age mouth blowing three breath

This 4-stroke character began as a full pictograph

This character began as a pictograph of two real f

yāo

This six-stroke character began as a bronze-age im

yán

This 'grind' character hides a scholar’s inkstone

yān

This 'smoke' character began as ancient fire-and-m

yǎn

Born as 'water unfolding', this character flowed f

yáng

Though it means 'ocean,' 洋 is almost never used a

yóu

Originally a Han-dynasty symbol for pressed plant

yǒng

This 5-stroke character began as a flowing river i