員 (yuán) - Member, personnel, employee & a person engaged in some field of activity

員Tone 2

yuán ｜ 10 strokes ｜ radical:

喻悦

員 · yuán

Member, personnel, employee;

a person engaged in some field of activity;

also used as a measure word for certain persons.

Member, personnel, employeea person engaged in some field of activityalso used as a measure word for certain

Usage highlights

EmployeeMemberPersonnelClerkActor/ActressAthlete

Synonyms

Usage & contexts

Examples

  • He is a company employee (公司员工).
  • The committee has ten members (委员会有十名委员).
  • She works as a salesperson (销售员).
  • We need to recruit more staff (招聘更多人员).

Collocations

  • Employee(员工)
  • Member(成员)
  • Personnel(人员)
  • Clerk(店员)
  • Actor/Actress(演员)
  • Athlete(运动员)

Idioms

  • Outstanding person(优秀人员)
  • Full staff(全员)
  • Casualties(伤亡人员)
  • Teaching staff(教职人员)

Cultural background

FAQ
  • Originally depicted a round object (鼎口) in oracle bone script, later borrowed for its sound to mean 'personnel'.
  • Commonly used in modern Chinese to denote various professions and roles in organizations.
  • Appears in many compound words describing occupations and organizational membership.

FAQ