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华

華
huá / huà
adjective #3,908

Meanings

  1. 1 China; Chinese (in compounds)
  2. 2 magnificent; splendid
  3. 3 prosperous; flourishing

Examples

中华文化博大精深。
Zhōnghuá wénhuà bódàjīngshēn.
Chinese culture is vast and profound.
华人遍布全世界。
Huárén biànbù quán shìjiè.
Ethnic Chinese live all over the world.
这家酒店很豪华。
Zhè jiā jiǔdiàn hěn háohuá.
This hotel is very luxurious.

Tips

usage
huá pulls two main threads. (1) China-as-civilization: 中华 (cultural China), 华人 (ethnic Chinese), 华语 (Chinese language), 华侨 (overseas Chinese). (2) Splendid / magnificent: 豪华 (luxurious), 华丽 (gorgeous), 繁华 (bustling), 才华 (talent). Both threads share the original sense of 'flowering' — China as the central efflorescence, and beauty/talent as a flowering of the person.
mistakes
Two readings. huá is the everyday one (this entry). Switch to 华 (see the huà entry) only for the surname Huà and Mount Hua: 华山 in Shaanxi, the legendary physician 华佗, the mathematician 华罗庚. A small reminder: People's Republic of China = 中华人民共和国 uses Huá.

Components

radical
十 shí
ten (here a graphic residue)
Bottom radical 十 in 华 is a graphic stand-in inherited from the simplification, not the literal 'ten'. The original 華 had a complex grass-and-hanging stack at the bottom; the 1956 reform clipped it to a simple 十-shaped vertical-plus-horizontal silhouette. As indexing radical, 十 serves as the lookup key without carrying a 'ten' meaning here.
phonetic
化 huà
to change; transform
Top phonetic 化 supplies the sound — huà shifted to huá by tone change only. Heavily simplified from traditional 華, which depicted flowers blossoming on a tree — the modern 化-on-top is a stylised replacement that preserves the sound while shedding the floral image.

Stroke Order

华 huá