幺 (yāo): one (when spelling out numbers)

Meanings

1 one (when spelling out numbers)
2 youngest
3 smallest
4 ace (on dice)

Examples

我的电话号码是幺三八。

Wǒ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì yāo sānbā.

My phone number starts with 1-3-8.

她是家里的老幺。

Tā shì jiālǐ de lǎo yāo.

She is the youngest in the family.

Tips

usage

幺 is used instead of 一 (yī) when reading numbers aloud (phone numbers, military, radio) to avoid confusion with 七 (qī). Think of it as China's version of 'niner' for nine.

memory

When you hear someone in a Chinese drama read a phone number, each '1' becomes 'yāo' — that's 幺.

Components

pictograph

幺 yāo

tiny silk thread (Kangxi #52)

Pictograph of a tiny coiled silk filament — half of the doubled 丝 'silk threads,' kept as a single strand to mean 'small, fine, youngest.' Self-radical: heads 幼 (young), 幻 (illusion), 幽 (secluded). The 'one' reading, used when spelling numbers aloud to avoid 一/七 confusion, comes from this 'smallest of all' sense.

Radical

Tiny Kangxi #52

Pictograph of a tiny silken thread — used to suggest something small or newly born. As an indexing radical it covers a small group of characters relating to smallness, youth, or fineness: 幻 (illusion), 幼 (young), 幽 (secluded), 幾/几 (how many).