The great white shark is one of the most feared creatures in the ocean.
Tips
usage
鯊 (shā) is the traditional/variant form of 鲨, the character for shark. In modern standard Chinese, 鲨鱼 is the full word for shark. 鯊 alone may appear in classical texts, proper nouns, or as a literary shorthand.
Components
radical
魚yú
fish (traditional form)
Bottom indexing radical 魚 — the traditional eleven-stroke form, picturing a fish with head, body and four-dot tail (the 灬 below stands for the splayed fins, not fire). The simplified counterpart 鱼 drops the four dots. Anchors 鯊 in the marine creature family.
Top 沙 supplies the sound shā exactly, with a vivid semantic echo: sharks were once thought to swim in sandy shallows along the coast, and their skin feels gritty as sand. The same character used here for sound also colours the meaning — a sand-fish.
