noun #36,914

Meanings

  1. 1 edge; shore; horizon
  2. 2 limit; bound

Examples

HSK 4
Shēng yě yǒu yá, ér zhī yě wú yá.
Life has a limit, but knowledge has none.
HSK 7-9
Tiānyá-hǎijiǎo, yǒngbù fēnlí.
To the ends of the earth, never to part.

Tips

history
The second example is a famous opening line from Zhuangzi 《庄子·养生主》: , - used by Chinese students for centuries to warn against burning out chasing infinite knowledge with finite years.
memory
today appears almost only in compounds: 天涯 ('horizon, far-off place'), 海涯 ('sea's edge'), 生涯 ('career, life'), 无涯 ('boundless'). Three-dot water radical + (cliff) gives the sound and the 'edge of water' image.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left - the side-form of . It indexes in the water family with river, sea, lake. A is literally where land meets water - the shore or water's edge - which is why the water radical leads.
phonetic
cliff; precipice
Right side is a cliff () over stacked earth (), supplying the yá sound and a sharp semantic flavour - a steep drop at the edge. Combined with water, the picture sharpens into 'water's edge', extending to the figurative 'limit; horizon' of 生涯 'life's span'.

Stroke Order