咔 (kā): (onomatopoeia) click; snap; cra…

Meanings

1 (onomatopoeia) click; snap; crack
2 (used as phonetic 'ka')

Characters

咔

kā

(onomatopoeia) click; snap

Examples

咔嚓一声，门锁打开了。

Kāchā yī shēng, ménsuǒ dǎkāi le.

With a click, the door lock opened.

树枝咔的一声断了。

Shùzhī kā de yī shēng duàn le.

The branch snapped with a crack.

Tips

usage

咔 is mainly used in onomatopoeic compounds like 咔嚓 (kāchā, snap/click), 咔嗒 (kādā, click/clatter). On its own it represents a short sharp sound.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical — the indexing radical for onomatopoeic interjections. In 咔 it tags the syllable as a sound effect, the sharp clicking noise things make. Same sound-effect family: 啊 ah, 哎 oh, 哇 wow, 嘿 hey — all 口-prefixed characters that exist purely for the sound they encode.

phonetic

卡 kǎ

card; to wedge (phonetic)

Right 卡 supplies the sound kā with a tone shift. 卡 itself is a modern compound of 上+下, "stuck between up and down" — to wedge or jam. The clicking sound of something snapping into place fits the onomatopoeia: 咔嚓 the click of a camera, the snap of a branch.