沿

yán

along

to follow (a line, tradition etc); to carry on; to trim (a border with braid, tape etc); border; edge

water (氵) + table (几) + mouth (口) = following along an edge

几 and 口 together form a phonetic cluster that gives the sound yán; the water radical (氵) carries the meaning, evoking water following its banks or the edge of a shoreline.

++沿
Small tablePhonetic
MouthPhonetic
WaterSemantic

我们沿着河边慢慢地走。

wǒ men yán zhe hé biān màn màn de zǒu。

We walked slowly along the riverside.

他们沿用了几百年前的老方法。

tā men yán yòng le jǐ bǎi nián qián de lǎo fāng fǎ。

They carried on using the old method from several hundred years ago.

Words with 沿

边沿

biān yán

edge

马路沿儿

mǎ lù yán r

roadside

前沿

qián yán

(military) forward position

帽沿

mào yán

variant of 帽檐[mao4 yan2]

床沿

chuáng yán

the edge of a bed

历史沿革

lì shǐ yán gé

historical development

沿海

yán hǎi

coastal

沿条儿

yán tiáo r

tape seam (in dressmaking)

沿例

yán lì

following the model

沿儿

yán r

edge (used directly after a noun, e.g. roadside 馬路沿兒|马路沿儿)

沿岸

yán àn

coastal area

沿岸地区

yán àn dì qū

coastal area

More characters with 氵