鴉 meaning and stroke order
Crow; Corvus species (various)
How to write 鴉, stroke by stroke
15 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 鴉
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- crow
How 鴉 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Bird.
鳥 gives the meaning and 牙 hints at the sound.
Radical: 鳥 (bird), shared by 78 characters on this site.
How to remember 鴉
鴉 is a pictophonetic character: 牙 (yá, tooth) on the left gives the sound, and 鳥 (niǎo, bird) on the right tells you it is a bird. Picture a noisy bird snapping its beak like teeth, saying "yā, yā".
On its own 鴉 is rare. It usually appears in words like 烏鴉 (wūyā, crow) and 塗鴉 (túyā, graffiti). Example: 教室裡鴉雀無聲。(Jiàoshì lǐ yāquè-wúshēng.) The classroom was completely silent.
Common mistake: Learners often say yá with a second tone because the phonetic part 牙 is yá, but 鴉 is first tone yā. Also do not confuse it with 鴨 (yā, duck), which sounds the same but has 甲 on the left instead of 牙.
Common words with 鴉
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
Questions about 鴉
How many strokes are in 鴉?
鴉 is written with 15 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 鴉 mean?
鴉 (yā) means crow; Corvus species (various). A common word with it is 鸦雀无声 (yāquè-wúshēng), meaning "lit. crow and peacock make no sound; absolute silence (idiom); not a single voice can be h".
How do you pronounce 鴉?
鴉 is pronounced yā, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 鴉?
The radical of 鴉 is 鳥, which carries the idea of "bird". Dictionaries list 鴉 under this radical.
What is the simplified form of 鴉?
鴉 is a traditional character. Its simplified form is 鸦, used in mainland China and Singapore.
Why does 烏鴉嘴 mean someone who says unlucky things?
In Chinese culture the crow's call is traditionally seen as a bad omen. So calling someone a 烏鴉嘴 (wūyāzuǐ) means they said something gloomy that might come true, like predicting rain before a picnic.
Why is 鴉 used in 鴉片 (opium)?
鴉片 (yāpiàn) is a loanword chosen mainly for its sound, not its meaning. The characters here just imitate the foreign word, so the crow meaning does not apply.