嗒

dā
interjection #7,337

Meanings

  1. 1 tap; click (onomatopoeia for a light tapping sound)
  2. 2 used in reduplication: 嗒嗒 (tapping/clicking sound)

Characters

Contains the mouth radical 口, indicating it represents a sound.

Examples

HSK 5
Jiànpán fāchū dādā de shēngyīn.
The keyboard made a clacking sound.
HSK 7-9
马蹄嗒嗒地响。
Mǎtí dādā de xiǎng.
The horse's hooves clattered with a clip-clop sound.
HSK 7-9
钟表嗒嗒地走着。
Zhōngbiǎo dādā de zǒu zhe.
The clock ticked away.

Tips

usage
嗒 is almost always used in reduplicated form 嗒嗒 to represent repetitive tapping/clicking sounds. Also appears in 吧嗒 for the sound of smacking lips or dripping.

Components

radical
口 kǒu
mouth
口 depicts an open mouth - the conventional flag for onomatopoeia. As radical it marks 嗒 as a noise-rendering character, joining 哒 嘀 嗡 啪, all written sound-effects produced or imitated by the mouth.
phonetic
荅 dá
small bean (literary)
荅 supplies the sound (dá shifted to dā). 荅 is an old variant of 答 with the original grass-radical-on-bean meaning. Here it serves purely as phonetic - the mouth header signals the character is being used for its tap-tap sound.

Stroke Order

嗒 dā