叽里呱啦

嘰裡呱啦

jīlǐguālā

adverb #33,033

Meanings

1 jabbering; chattering noisily; rattling on (in talk that's loud, fast, and often unintelligible)

Characters

(onomatopoeic) chirp; squeak

(reduplicated infix in 叠词)

(onomatopoeic) quack; croak

(particle / sound)

Examples

他叽里呱啦说了一大堆,我一句也没听懂。

Tā jīlǐguālā shuōle yí dà duī, wǒ yí jù yě méi tīngdǒng.

He rattled on at length, but I didn't catch a single sentence.

孩子们叽里呱啦地跑进了教室。

Háizimen jīlǐguālā de pǎojìnle jiàoshì.

The children jabbered as they ran into the classroom.

Tips

register

Colloquial onomatopoeia mimicking the sound of fast, garbled speech — often used a bit dismissively ("yapping on"). Frequently applied to children, foreigners speaking an unintelligible language, or anyone the speaker can't follow. Variants include 叽里咕噜 (jīlǐgūlū) for muttering, 叽叽喳喳 (jījīzhāzhā) for chirpy chatter.

Stroke Order

叽 jī

里 lǐ

呱 guā

啦 la