adjective #4,938

Meanings

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

Examples

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

Tips

usage
is often combined with other characters: 优雅 (yōuyǎ, elegant), 高雅 (gāoyǎ, refined), 文雅 (wényǎ, cultured), 雅致 (yǎzhì, 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 (yá → yǎ, just a tone shift). itself depicts interlocking teeth or tusks. Phonetic family: yá (sprout), yá (aphid), yā (crow) — all built on . Semantically silent here — pure sound carrier in .

Stroke Order