The baby fell to the earth crying, its wail filling the delivery room.
Tips
usage
呱 is most commonly used in the reduplicated form 呱呱 (guāguā), imitating croaking sounds. The phrase 呱呱坠地 (guāguā zhuì dì) is a literary expression meaning to be born — literally to fall to earth crying.
Mouth radical on the left, the indexing radical. It marks 呱 as a sound — a frog's croak, a duck's quack, a newborn's wail. Onomatopoeic characters almost always lead with 口, and this one fits the pattern exactly.
Right side 瓜 supplies the guā sound exactly — the same sound a frog or duck makes, which is the whole point of the onomatopoeia. The 'melon' meaning is irrelevant here; 瓜 is the sound clue. Same trick appears in 孤 alone, 狐 fox, sharing the gū/guā root.
