adjective #4,938

Meanings

  1. 1 elegant
  2. 2 refined
  3. 3 graceful

Examples

HSK 1
Tā shì yīgè hěn yǎ de rén.
She is a very refined person.
HSK 4
Zhè jiān fángzi zhuāngxiū de hěn yǎ.
This house is decorated very elegantly.

Tips

usage
is often combined with other characters: 优雅 (elegant), 高雅 (refined), 文雅 (cultured), 雅致 (tasteful).

Components

radical
zhuī
short-tailed bird
Right (short-tailed bird) - the indexing radical. The original referent of may have been a specific crow or rook (still alive in ); from the songbird sense came 'refined, elegant' - birds with graceful song. Same radical anchors (gather), (difficult), (sparrow).
phonetic
tooth; tusk
Left supplies the sound (ya -> ya, just a tone shift). itself depicts interlocking teeth or tusks. Phonetic family: (sprout), (aphid), (crow) - all built on . Semantically silent here - pure sound carrier in .

Stroke Order