衙 meaning and stroke order
Public office; official residence
How to write 衙, stroke by stroke
13 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 衙
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- office
- yamen 衙門|衙门
How 衙 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Go.
行 gives the meaning and 吾 hints at the sound.
Radical: 行 (to go), shared by 12 characters on this site.
How to remember 衙
衙 is 吾 (wú) squeezed inside 行 (xíng, to go), like a building people go into to see officials. 行 gives the meaning of going to a public place, and 吾 hints at the sound.
衙 almost always appears in 衙门 (yámen), the government office of imperial China, so you will meet it in historical dramas, novels and history texts. In modern speech 衙门 can also be used jokingly or critically for a slow, bureaucratic office. Example: 他去衙门告状。(Tā qù yámen gàozhuàng.) He went to the yamen to file a complaint.
Common mistake: Learners often read 衙 as wú because of the 吾 inside, but the sound is yá with a second tone. Also be careful to split 行 into a left part and a right part with 吾 written in the middle, not placed beside it.
Common words with 衙
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 衙门 | yámen | yamen, government office in dynastic China |
Questions about 衙
How many strokes are in 衙?
衙 is written with 13 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 衙 mean?
衙 (yá) means public office; official residence. A common word with it is 衙门 (yámen), meaning "yamen, government office in dynastic China".
How do you pronounce 衙?
衙 is pronounced yá, in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 衙?
The radical of 衙 is 行, which carries the idea of "to go". Dictionaries list 衙 under this radical.
Is 衙门 still used for government offices today?
Not officially. Modern offices have names like 政府 (zhèngfǔ) or 机关 (jīguān). People sometimes say 衙门 to complain that an office is bureaucratic or acts too high and mighty.
Does 衙 appear in other words besides 衙门?
Yes, but mostly in historical contexts, such as 官衙 (guānyá), an official's office, and 衙役 (yáyì), a yamen runner or constable. For everyday modern Chinese, 衙门 is the one to know.