What 燕 means
It can mean a swallow, the Yan state, or a feast. In Mandarin, 燕子 and 燕窝 name a swallow and a bird’s nest, while 燕京 and 燕赵 point to the ancient Yan state and its region. In classical Chinese, 燕礼 names a hosted banquet; 燕 can also mean leisure.
In Mandarin, the bird and banquet readings sound roughly like “yan” with a falling tone (Pinyin yàn); the state name sounds like “yan” with a high, level tone (yān). Japanese reads 燕 as つばめ for “swallow” and also uses えん in some compounds. Korean uses the Sino-Korean reading 연, roughly “yuhn.”
The banquet sense is literary and the state name historical; fonts may vary the strokes slightly.
A bare 燕 does not tell you whether the bird or the Yan state is meant.
Part of the collection
Who writes 燕
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What it means when someone sends it to you
4 readingsA swallow or a bird’s nest.
Related characters
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Questions people ask
1Why does 燕 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
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How to type or find 燕
- Also called
- Yan · swallow · tsubame
- Search it as
- 燕 meaning · 燕 swallow · 燕 Yan state · 燕子 · 燕窝 · 燕京 · 燕赵 · 燕礼
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
燕\71D5Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.