诧 (chà): to be surprised, to be astonished

诧 (chà) is a Chinese character meaning “to be surprised.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 讠 (semantic) and 宅 (phonetic). It ranks #2586 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 诧 speech. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 认 (rèn, to recognize, to admit), 记 (jì, to remember, to record), 识 (shí, to know, knowledge).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 讠 speech8 strokesFrequency #2586讠 semantic宅 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to be surprised
  2. to be astonished

Etymology & Origin

诧

pictophoneticspeech

Decomposition: ⿰讠宅 (layout: left-right)

Components:讠semantic宅phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
诧异adjectivechà yìflabbergasted
惊诧adjectivejīng chàto be surprised
甚感诧异shèn gǎn chà yìamazed
3
Total compounds
33
As first character
33
As last character
33
As middle character

诧 appears in 3 compound words: 33 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 33 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 诧 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

惊jīng
0.56592 co-occurrences
异yì
0.526136 co-occurrences
蚁yǐ
0.50922 co-occurrences
叹tàn
0.46110 co-occurrences
曰yuē
0.37420 co-occurrences
感gǎn
0.35742 co-occurrences
启qǐ
0.33910 co-occurrences
闻wén
0.32810 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

诧语是交流思想的重要工具。

chà yǔ shì jiāo liú sī xiǎng de chóng yāo gōng jù .

Language is an essential tool for communicating ideas.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

这份记忆，得先从青年方原扮演者马翔说起，刚接到角色时他有点诧异，方原是谁？

zhè fèn jì yì , dé xiān cóng qīng nián fāng yuán bàn yǎn zhě mǎ xiáng shuō qǐ , gāng jiē dào jiǎo sè shí tā yǒu diǎn chà yì , fāng yuán shì shéi ?

This story begins with Ma Xiang, the actor who plays the young Fang Yuan. When he first received the role, he was a bit surprised—who was Fang Yuan?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 讠 (speech) component

说shuō认rèn许xǔ计jì该gāi让ràng识shí请qǐng设shè议yì

Related Characters

认rèn记jì识shí诉sù试shì话huà语yǔ说shuō请qǐng读dú

Homophones — Characters pronounced chà

查chá察chá差chā茶chá插chā叉chā刹chà岔chà

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 诧 (chà) mean in Chinese?
诧 (chà) primarily means "to be surprised." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2586 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 诧 have?
诧 is written with 8 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 诧?
The radical associated with 诧 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are the components of 诧?
诧 is composed of: 讠 (semantic), 宅 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰讠宅 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 诧?
Common words with 诧 include: 诧异 (chà yì, "flabbergasted"); 惊诧 (jīng chà, "to be surprised"); 甚感诧异 (shèn gǎn chà yì, "amazed"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 诧 (chà)?
Several characters share the pronunciation chà: 查 (to check, to investigate), 察 (to observe), 差 (difference), 茶 (tea), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 诧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 诧 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 诧 with real-time feedback

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

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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.