yān

to flood

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

water (氵) + phonetic 奄 = to flood and submerge

奄 lends the sound yān; the water radical carries all the meaning — water covering and overwhelming something beneath it.

+
A classical word meaning to coverPhonetic
WaterSemantic

大雨把田地都了。

dà yǔ bǎ tián dì dōu yān le。

The heavy rain flooded all the fields.

河水上涨,把附近的村子了好几天。

hé shuǐ shàng zhǎng,bǎ fù jìn de cūn zi yān le hǎo jǐ tiān。

The river rose and submerged the nearby village for several days.

Words with 淹

淹博

yān bó

widely read

淹死

yān sǐ

to drown

淹水

yān shuǐ

to be flooded

淹没

yān mò

to submerge

淹灭

yān miè

to submerge

淹灌

yān guàn

basin irrigation (e.g. paddy fields)

淹留

yān liú

to stay for a long period

淹盖

yān gài

to submerge

淹头搭脑

yān tóu dā nǎo

listless

范仲淹

fàn zhòng yān

Fan Zhongyan (989–1052), Song dynasty scholar and politician, author of On Yueyang Tower 岳陽樓記|岳阳楼记[Yue4 yang2 Lou2 Ji4]

More characters with 氵