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嘉

jiā
adjective #11,917

Meanings

  1. 1 excellent; fine; praiseworthy
  2. 2 to praise; to commend

Examples

嘉宾们请入座。
Jiābīn men qǐng rùzuò.
Distinguished guests, please be seated.
他受到了嘉奖。
Tā shòudào le jiājiǎng.
He received a commendation.

Tips

usage
嘉宾 (jiābīn) = honored guest. 嘉奖 (jiājiǎng) = commendation. Also common in place names and personal names.

Components

semantic
壴 zhù
drum on a stand
壴 sits on top — an old graph picturing a tall ceremonial drum on a stand, with feathered ornaments above. It supplies the festive flavour: drumming at a ritual feast. The whole char is indexed under Kangxi #30 口 (kǒu) by tradition, taken from 加 below. Recognizable inside 鼓 and 喜.
phonetic
加 jiā
add; increase
加 (jiā) at the bottom supplies the sound exactly — same initial, same rime, same tone. The drum on top plus 加 below also reads as a compound ideograph: pile praise upon a celebration, hence the senses excellent, fine, to commend (嘉奖, 嘉宾). Pedagogically a clean phonetic-and-flavour pairing.

Filed under radical 口 (kǒu, #30) by convention. 口 is not a separate component in 嘉, so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

嘉 jiā