拖延

拖延 tuōyán

To delay; to put off; to procrastinate^†

拖延 in a sentence HSK 6 tuoyan

What 拖延 means

To delay^†
to put off^†
to procrastinate^†

† Our own dictionary has no entry for 拖延, so these meanings are adapted from CC-CEDICT, published by MDBG and its contributors and based on CEDICT © 1997, 1998 Paul Andrew Denisowski, and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recognise a piece of 拖延 but not the character it belongs to? Pick the parts in the component character finder and it will name the character for you — free for every character, with nothing to sign in to.

Character by character

拖延 is written with 2 characters. Chinese words are usually easier to remember once you can see what each part contributes.

拖

tuō

Drag along (tow - pull - mop - trail - delay)

延

yán

To delay (prolong - extend)

Words that share a character with 拖延

How to write 拖延

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Practise 拖延 on printable 田字格 sheets, trace it in the writing practice tool, or watch any other character in the Stroke Order Animator.

拖延 in a sentence

这件事不能再拖延了。

Zhè jiàn shì bù néng zài tuōyán le.

This matter cannot be put off any longer.

工程因为天气拖延了一个月。

Gōngchéng yīnwèi tiānqì tuōyán le yí ge yuè.

The project was delayed a month by the weather.

Every sentence on this site that uses 拖延 is collected on the 拖延 sentence page. Want pinyin above a sentence of your own? Paste it into the Pinyin Annotator.

Questions about 拖延

What does 拖延 mean in English?

拖延 is pronounced tuōyán and means To delay, to put off, to procrastinate †.

How do you pronounce 拖延?

拖延 is tuōyán in pinyin — written tuoyan without tone marks. Press the audio button on this page to hear it spoken by a native voice.

What are the characters in 拖延?

拖延 is written with 2 characters: 拖 (tuō) Drag along (tow - pull - mop - trail - delay), 延 (yán) To delay (prolong - extend). Knowing the parts is usually how the whole word becomes memorable.

Is 拖延 an HSK word?

Yes — 拖延 is on the official HSK 6 vocabulary list. You can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 6 page.

Studied around the same time

推论 tuīlùn 推销 tuīxiāo 吞吞吐吐 tūntūntǔtǔ 托运 tuōyùn 脱离 tuōlí 妥当 tuǒdàng 妥善 tuǒshàn 妥协 tuǒxié

Keep going

Translate a whole sentence containing 拖延 with the Chinese to Pinyin translator, study it alongside the rest of HSK 6, drill it with HSK flashcards, or save it above and review it on your review deck.

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