(è): crocodile

(è) is a Chinese character meaning “crocodile.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2966 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, fish. Its radical form (fish) appears in many related characters such as (, fish), (xiān, fresh), (, Shandong, foolish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. crocodile

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticfish

Decomposition: ⿰鱼咢 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
è yúalligator
è yú yǎn lèicrocodile tears
yáng zǐ èChinese alligator (Alligator sinensis)
dà èlit. big crocodile
kǎi mén è(zoology) caiman
è yú jiācrocodile clip
duǎn wěn èalligator
è lóngChampsosaurus
è xīChinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus)
è lí jiàngguacamole
è líavocado (Persea americana)
11
Total compounds
64
As first character
36
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 11 compound words: 64 as the first character, 36 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.

0.6164,475 co-occurrences
wěn
0.5811,812 co-occurrences
zuǐ
0.5291,116 co-occurrences
齿chǐ
0.523828 co-occurrences
0.469582 co-occurrences
cáo
0.459378 co-occurrences
jiá
0.45354 co-occurrences
shǔ
0.4442,586 co-occurrences
wěi
0.426234 co-occurrences
guī
0.414114 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

鱼是冷血动物,生活在热带地区。

Èyú shì lěngxuè dòngwù, shēnghuó zài rèdài dìqū.

Crocodiles are cold-blooded animals living in tropical regions.

東方日報Mar 2026

横眉冷看:官即是 即是官

héng méi lěng kàn : guān jí shì è è jí shì guān

A Sarcastic Glance: Officials Are Like Crocodiles, and Crocodiles Are Like Officials

Tatoeba

鱼有尖利的牙齿。

èyú yǒu jiānlì de yáchǐ.

Crocodiles have sharp teeth.

Tatoeba

他的腿被鱼咬了。

Tā de tuǐ bèi èyú yǎo le.

His leg was bitten by a crocodile.

Tatoeba

木头或许能在水里呆上十年,但它终究不可能变成一条鱼。

Mùtou huòxǔ néng zài Shuǐlǐ dāi shàng shí nián, dàn tā zhōngjiū bù kěnéng biànchéng yī tiáo èyú.

Wood may remain ten years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the fish radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced è

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鳄 (è) mean in Chinese?
鳄 (è) primarily means "crocodile." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2966 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 鳄 have?
鳄 is written with 20 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 鳄?
The radical associated with 鳄 is 鱼 (fish). This radical appears in many characters related to fish.
What are the components of 鳄?
鳄 is composed of: 鱼 (semantic), 咢 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰鱼咢 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鳄?
Common words with 鳄 include: 鳄鱼 (è yú, "alligator"); 鳄鱼眼泪 (è yú yǎn lèi, "crocodile tears"); 扬子鳄 (yáng zǐ è, "Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis)"); 大鳄 (dà è, "lit. big crocodile"); 凯门鳄 (kǎi mén è, "(zoology) caiman"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鳄 (è)?
Several characters share the pronunciation è: 讹 (error), 俄 (Russia), 娥 (good), 鹅 (goose), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 鳄 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 鳄 and the traditional form is 鰐.

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.