崖 (yá) · cliff, precipice, escarpment

Meanings

1 cliff
2 precipice
3 escarpment

Characters

崖

yá

cliff; precipice

Examples

HSK 7-9

悬崖上长着一棵松树。

Xuányá shàng zhǎng zhe yī kē sōngshù.

A pine tree grows on the cliff.

HSK 7-9

小心！前面就是悬崖。

Xiǎoxīn! Qiánmiàn jiùshì xuányá.

Be careful! There's a cliff ahead.

Tips

memory

The character has 山 (mountain) on top of 圭 (jade tablet). Picture a mountain face that drops off like a flat tablet edge - a cliff.

usage

Most commonly seen in 悬崖 (cliff/precipice). The idiom 悬崖勒马 means 'to rein in the horse at the edge of the cliff' - to pull back from the brink just in time.

Components

radical

山 shān

mountain

Three-stroke mountain radical on top, the indexing radical, with peaks rising. 崖 means a cliff or steep mountain face - the most vertical kind of upland terrain. The radical groups 崖 with 岭 ridge, 峰 peak, 岗 hillock, 峡 gorge.

phonetic

厓 yá

cliff edge

Bottom 厓 supplies the sound - yá read straight across with no shift. 厓 itself is the older standalone char for cliff, picturing a sheltering rock-face. So 山 simply makes the cliff imagery explicit by adding a mountain on top of what was already a cliff char.