yuan
/juˈɑn/noun
yuan is spelled Y-U-A-N: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.0 times per million words in written English, the 11,198th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, yuan means “The basic unit of money in China” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of yuan is yuans.
How many letters and syllables are in yuan?
| Letters | 4: Y-U-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.0 times per million words; the 11,198th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is yuan?
Yuan appears 5.0 times per million words in written English, the 11,198th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce yuan?
- UK /ˌjuːˈæn/
- UK /ˈwæn/
- US /juˈɑn/
Yuan has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-yuan.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with yuan
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with yuan?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as yuan from its last stressed vowel (/ɑn/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of yuan
- yuans plural
- yüan
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does yuan mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The basic unit of money in China.
- 2
One of the five branches of the government of the Republic of China.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Yuan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense basic unit of money in China:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does yuan come from?
From Mandarin 元 (yuán), from 圓／圆 (yuán, “circle > round coin”) referring to the piece of eight. Compare Japanese 円(えん) (en), Korean 원(圓) (won). Doublet of yen and won.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).