yuan

noun

yu·​an ˈyü-ən  yü-ˈän 

plural yuan

1

: the basic monetary unit of the People's Republic of China see Money Table compare renminbi

2

: the dollar of the Republic of China (Taiwan)

Examples of yuan in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Chinese equities should have moderate upside over the next 12 months on improved earnings, more dominance in upstream supply chains globally and yuan strength against the dollar, Morgan Stanley says. —Justina Lee, CNBC, 13 May 2026

Guo Fengjin, 54, paid about 130,000 yuan ($18,000) for his BYD Qin Plus sedan. —Jay Ganglani, NBC news, 13 May 2026

China’s Alibaba said that growth accelerated for both its artificial intelligence and cloud businesses in the latest quarter, driven by the AI boom, even though overall revenue rose just 3% to to 243 billion yuan ($36 billion). —ABC News, 13 May 2026

Recently, Unitree launched a low-cost upper-body humanoid robot starting at 26,900 yuan ($ 4290), featuring modular bases and up to 31 degrees of freedom. —Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 12 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

Chinese (Beijing) yuán

First Known Use

1917, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for yuan

• anton
• argon
• axon
• baronne
• baryon
• baton
• boron
• buisson
• bygone
• capon
• cardon
• chiffon

Kids Definition

yuan

noun

yu·​an ˈyü-ən  yu̇-ˈän 

plural yuan

1

: the basic unit of money in China

2

: a coin or bill worth one yuan

Geographical Definition

Yuan

geographical name

Yu·​an ˈywen 

ˈywän

1

river 500 miles (805 kilometers) long in southeast central China flowing from Guizhou northeast to northeastern Hunan

2

see red sense 4