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苒 is an adjective describing the lush growth of vegetation or the gradual passing of time. It is a phono-semantic compound: the radical 艹 (grass) on top marks the semantic field of plants, and the lower component 冉 (rǎn) supplies the pronunciation while also suggesting slowness or gradual movement. The character rarely occurs alone; it appears almost exclusively in the literary compound 荏苒 (rěnrǎn), which poetically evokes time slipping away imperceptibly. This usage extends the steady, silent growth of plants into a metaphor for the quiet progression of time.
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