xiá
noun #28,906

Meanings

  1. 1 blemish
  2. 2 flaw in jade
  3. 3 imperfection

Examples

Zhèkuài yùshí yǒu yīdiǎn xiǎo xiá, dàn zhěngtǐ réngrán zhēnguì.
This piece of jade has a small blemish, but it is still precious overall.
Tā de biǎoxiàn jìnhū wánměi, jīhū wúxiá kě tiāo.
His performance was nearly perfect, with almost no flaw to find.

Tips

memory
contains the jade radical (), reminding us it originally referred to flaws in jade. Common idioms: 瑕疵 (flaw/defect), 无瑕 (flawless), 白璧微瑕 (a minor blemish on an otherwise perfect thing).

Components

radical
jade (left-side form of 玉)
Left is the jade radical — three horizontal stones threaded on a vertical string, the left-side form of . Indexes in the jade family with pearl, agate, jade disc. A is specifically a flaw in jade, later generalised to any blemish.
phonetic
jiǎ
borrowed; false
Right side supplies the sound, drifting from jiǎ to xiá. is the older form behind modern (false, borrowed), so it carries a faint hint of "not quite right" — fitting for a flaw. Same phonetic powers , leisure, sunset glow, shrimp.

Stroke Order

xiá