引用

• Pinyin: yǐn yòng
• Hanzi breakdown: 引 = 弓 + 丨 (bow + arrow — to draw out); 用 = a vessel with contents (to use, to employ)

Meaning

To quote; to cite; to invoke. Using someone else's words, data, or authority to support an argument or statement.

Used in academic writing (引用文献), legal contexts (引用法条), and everyday speech (引用名言). Implies explicit attribution — quoting with acknowledgement of source. Slightly more formal than 用 alone. Also used in computing for referencing variables or data structures (引用类型).

Examples

1. 这篇气候变化综述共引用472篇文献，其中百余项来自近十年《自然》和《科学》原创研究。 This climate-change review cites 472 papers, including more than a hundred original studies from Nature and Science published in the past decade.
2. 辩护律师多次引用国际人权公约条款，并援引三起相似先例，说明指控证据不足。 The defense lawyer repeatedly cited provisions of international human rights conventions and invoked three similar precedents to show that the charges lacked sufficient evidence.
3. 演讲者开场引用一位十九世纪英国哲学家的论述，借此引出人工智能治理的伦理议题。 The speaker opened by quoting a 19th-century British philosopher, using it to introduce the ethical issues of AI governance.

Usage Guide

Context: academic, legal, literature, media

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 写政策分析报告时，作者应严格引用数据来源、年份和报告名，以保证结论可信。(When writing a policy analysis report, the author should strictly cite the data source, year, and report title to ensure credible conclusions.)
• 法官在判决书中引用最高法关于网购平台责任的最新解释，认定平台应承担连带赔偿。(In the judgment, the judge cited the Supreme People's Court's latest interpretation on online platform liability and ruled that the platform should bear joint compensation.)

Don't Say

• 他引用了那本书 — 引用 requires specifying what is being cited (a passage, argument, or data point), not just the book itself; use 引用了该书中的一段话 or 援引了书中的论点 to be precise about what was cited

Origin & History

引 (to draw out, to invoke — 弓 bow + 丨 arrow) + 用 (to use — 用 phonosemantic: to apply, to employ); together: 'to draw out and employ (words or authority)'

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal