King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “along”

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

The closest CC-CEDICT match for along is 沿 (yán), defined as: along; to follow (a line, tradition etc); to carry on; to trim (a border with braid, tape etc); border; edge.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

沿 yán
to follow a course, to go along
radical 85 ⽔ · 8 strokes

Other Chinese words for “along”

WordPinyinMeaning
顺 (順)shùnto obey; to follow
缘 (緣)yuáncause; reason
顺着 (順著)shùn zheto follow; following

Related words

Other words that share a character with 沿.

WordPinyinMeaning
沿海yán hǎicoastal
沿岸yán àncoastal area; littoral or riparian
沿着 (沿著)yán zheto go along; to follow
沿用yán yòngto continue to use (old methods); to apply as before
沿线 (沿線)yán xiànalong the line (e.g. railway); the region near the line
沿革yán géevolution of sth over time; course of development

See also: Japanese symbol for “along”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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