(ā): abbr. for country names that begin with 阿: Algeria 阿爾及利亞|阿尔及利亚, Afghanistan 阿富汗 etc, prefix used before monosyllabic names, kinship terms etc to indicate familiarity, used in transliteration

(ā) is a Chinese character meaning “abbr. for country names that begin with 阿: algeria 阿爾及利亞|阿尔及利亚, afghanistan 阿富汗 etc.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #471 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, place. Its radical form (mound) appears in many related characters such as (, (specifier) that), (dōu, all), (yuàn, courtyard).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. abbr. for country names that begin with 阿: Algeria 阿爾及利亞|阿尔及利亚, Afghanistan 阿富汗 etc
  2. prefix used before monosyllabic names, kinship terms etc to indicate familiarity
  3. used in transliteration

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplace

Decomposition: ⿰阝可 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounā yímaternal aunt3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
ā mén(loanword) amen
ā mànOman
ā fù hànAfghanistan
ā lā(Wu dialect) I
ā gēn tíngArgentina
ā lǐ(name) Ali
ā bō luóApollo (loanword)
ā ěr fǎalpha (Greek letter Α, α)
ā fēihoodlum
ā sè(name) Arthur
ā nuòArnold (name)
ā lúnAalen, town in Germany
ā lánAlan, Allen, Allan, Alain etc (name)
ā bǐAbby or Abi (name, sometimes short for Abigail)
ā bèi ěrNiels Henrik Abel (1802-1829), Norwegian mathematician
100
Total compounds
95
As first character
5
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 95 as the first character, 5 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.580211,833 co-occurrences
hàn
0.57370,514 co-occurrences
0.570435,138 co-occurrences
ěr
0.553353,681 co-occurrences
tíng
0.54599,504 co-occurrences
0.51617,262 co-occurrences
0.51031,320 co-occurrences
bēi
0.50122,393 co-occurrences
0.494386,438 co-occurrences
0.48787,738 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (38)

ābí dìyùHSK 7+

Avīci (the lowest level of the “hell” realm)

noun
ĀbǔdùlāHSK 7+

a transliteration of the Arabic male given name عَبْد اللّٰه (ʕabd allāh), Abd Allah

ĀdéléidéHSK 6+

Alternative name for 阿德萊德/阿德莱德 (Ādéláidé).: Adelaide (the state capital and largest city in South Australia, Australia)

Ā'ěrbēisīHSK 7+

Alps

Ā'ěrbótǎHSK 7+

Alberta (a province of Canada)

Ā'ěrjí'ěrHSK 4+

Algiers (the capital city of Algeria)

Ā'ěrtài ShānHSK 7+

Altai Mountains

ĀkǎdíyàHSK 7+

Arcadia; Acadia

Ālābó HǎiHSK 7+

Arabian Sea

ālābó jiāoHSK 7+

gum arabic

noun
ālābótángHSK 7+

arabinose

noun
ālābówénHSK 7+

Arabic (language)

noun

Showing 12 of 38 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le ā zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "阿" in the dictionary.

LtnFeb 2026

曼证实美伊2/26日内瓦再谈 传德黑兰愿...

ā 曼 zhèng shí měi yī 2 2 6 rì nèi wǎ zài tán chuán dé hēi lán yuàn . . .

Oman confirmed that the United States and Iran will talk again in Geneva on 2/26 to convey Tehran's wishes...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

曼:美伊26日再次瑞士谈判 伊朗外长:核...

ā 曼 : měi yī 2 6 rì zài cì ruì shì tán pàn yī lǎng wài cháng : hé . . .

Oman: The United States and Iran negotiated again in Switzerland on the 26th Iranian Foreign Minister: Nuclear...

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

88%的拉伯民众反对承认以色列政权

8 8 de ā lā bó mín zhòng fǎn duì chéng rèn yǐ sè liè zhèng quán

88% of the Arab population opposes the recognition of the Israeli regime

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

沙特拉伯前官员:任何对伊朗的军事打击都将是一...

shā tè ā lā bó qián guān yuán : rèn hé duì yī lǎng de jūn shì dǎ jī dōu jiāng shì yī . . .

Former Saudi Arabian official: Any military strike on Iran will be a...

百度新闻Feb 2026

茶香氤氲,温情暖暖~看婆爷叔如何解锁“行云流水”..

chá xiāng 氤 氲 , wēn qíng nuǎn nuǎn kàn ā pó yé shū rú hé jiě suǒ háng yún liú shuǐ . .

The tea is fragrant, warm and warm~ See how grandma and uncle unlock "flowing water":

Tatoeba

总统目前在迈密。

Zǒngtǒng mùqián zài Mài'āmì.

The president is presently in Miami.

Tatoeba

尔巴尼亚想加入欧盟。

ā'ěrbāníyà xiǎng jiārù ōuméng.

Albania wants to join the European Union.

Tatoeba

尔法、贝塔和咖玛是希腊文字。

ā'ěrfǎ, bèitǎ hé gāmǎ shì Xīlà wénzì.

Alpha, beta and gamma are Greek letters.

Tatoeba

里斯特杀了芭芭拉。

Shì ālǐsītè shā le Bābālā.

It was Alister who killed Barbara.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced ā

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 阿 (ā) mean in Chinese?
阿 (ā) primarily means "abbr. for country names that begin with 阿: algeria 阿爾及利亞|阿尔及利亚, afghanistan 阿富汗 etc." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #471 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 阿 and 终?
阿 (ā) and 终 (zhōng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 阿 (begin) vs 终 (end).
How many strokes does 阿 have?
阿 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 阿?
The radical associated with 阿 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 阿?
阿 is composed of: 阝 (semantic), 可 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝可 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 阿?
Common words with 阿 include: 阿姨 (ā yí, "maternal aunt"); 阿门 (ā mén, "(loanword) amen"); 阿曼 (ā màn, "Oman"); 阿富汗 (ā fù hàn, "Afghanistan"); 阿拉 (ā lā, "(Wu dialect) I"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 阿 (ā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ā: 啊 (exclamation). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 阿 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 阿 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.