kuà
verb HSK 6 #6,015

Meanings

  1. 1 to stride; to step across
  2. 2 to span; to straddle; to cross

Examples

Tā yī bù kuàguò le shuǐgōu.
He stepped across the ditch in one stride.
Zhè zuò qiáo kuàyuè le zhěng tiáo hé.
This bridge spans the entire river.
Kuàguó gōngsī zài quánqiú dōu yǒu yèwù.
Multinational companies have operations worldwide.
Kuà nián yè nǐ zěnme guò?
How will you spend New Year's Eve?

Tips

usage
forms many useful compounds: 跨国 (transnational), 跨越 (to cross over), (to cross into the new year), (cross-boundary/crossover).

Components

radical
foot
Foot radical on the left — the indexing semantic. means to step over, straddle, cross. The places the action squarely in the leg-and-foot family: (run), (jump), (tread), (follow at the heel), (leap over). The radical pins as a foot-action, specifically a long stride.
phonetic
kuā
boast; exaggerate (here phonetic)
Right component supplies the sound: kuā → kuà, just a tone shift. itself is (large) over (used phonetically), giving an 'overlarge boast' image. The phonetic also pulls duty in kuǎ (collapse) and kuà (sling) — a tight kua family where the over-extension flavour shows through 's sense of stretching the legs across.

Stroke Order

kuà