hài
verb #13,264

Meanings

  1. 1 to astonish; to startle; to terrify
  2. 2 to hack (computing)

Examples

HSK 5
Zhège xiāoxi lìngrén hàirán.
This news is shocking.
HSK 7-9
Hàirén-tīngwén de ànjiàn zhènjīng le quánguó.
The horrifying case shocked the entire country.

Tips

usage
appears in many compounds: 骇人 (terrifying), 骇人听闻 (horrifying), 骇客 (hacker, from English). The computing sense comes from the English word 'hack'.

Components

radical
horse
Horse radical on the left supplies the original image: a horse rearing in fright. From that startled-animal scene the verb generalised to any kind of terror or alarm. Same radical anchors gallop, ride, (with a horse-component variant) startle.
phonetic
hài
(zodiac branch - pig)
Right side supplies the sound: hài → hài (exact match). is the 12th earthly branch in the calendar and carries no semantic weight in - pure phonetic. Same phonetic group includes , , - all hài/gāi/hāi readings.

Stroke Order

hài