嘛 (ma): modal particle indicating that sth is obvious, particle indicating a pause for emphasis

嘛 (ma) is a Chinese character meaning “modal particle indicating that sth is obvious.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 麻 (phonetic). It ranks #1617 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 嘛 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. modal particle indicating that sth is obvious
  2. particle indicating a pause for emphasis

Etymology & Origin

嘛

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口麻 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
达赖喇嘛noundá lài lǎ maDalai Lama
喇嘛nounlǎ malama, spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism
要嘛yào maeither ...
干嘛gàn máwhat are you doing?
喇嘛教proper-nounlǎ ma jiàoLamaism
唵嘛呢叭咪吽phraseǎn má ní bā mī hōngom mani padme hum (Buddhist mantra)
班禅喇嘛nounbān chán lǎ maPanchen Lama
喇嘛庙nounlǎ ma miàolamasery
8
Total compounds
0
As first character
63
As last character
38
As middle character

嘛 appears in 8 compound words: 0 as the first character, 63 as the last, and 38 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 嘛 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

喇lǎ
0.87911,520 co-occurrences
赖lài
0.6011,804 co-occurrences
嗯ēn
0.49544 co-occurrences
呢ne
0.472360 co-occurrences
达dá
0.4642,038 co-occurrences
庙miào
0.453480 co-occurrences
禅chán
0.441158 co-occurrences
叭bā
0.43670 co-occurrences
诵sòng
0.42970 co-occurrences
寺sì
0.398608 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

班禅喇嘛bānchán lǎmaHSK 7+

Panchen Lama

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

妈妈嘛嘱我要按时吃饭,注意身体健康。

mā mā má zhǔ wǒ yāo àn shí chī fàn , zhù yì shēn tī jiàn kāng .

Mom always reminds me to eat on time and take care of my health.

少数派Jul 2026

因为它对场地要求少,放映系统相对简单——成本低嘛,更适合大规模推广。

yīn wéi tā duì chǎng dì yāo qiú shǎo , fàng yìng xì tǒng xiāng duì jiǎn dān — — chéng běn dī ma , gēng shì gě dà guī mó tuī guǎng .

Because it has minimal venue requirements and a relatively simple projection system—which keeps costs low—it’s better suited for widespread adoption.

爱范儿Jul 2026

我们也是外行嘛,进来之后发现,网孔很小、还要保持锋利度,真的很难。

wǒ men yě shì wài háng ma , jìn lái zhī hòu fā xiàn , wǎng kǒng hěn xiǎo , hái yāo bǎo chí fēng lì dù , zhēn de hěn nán .

We're amateurs, after all, and once we got started, we realized that the mesh is very fine and it's really hard to keep it sharp.

少数派Jul 2026

我干嘛要用自己的日记本写?

wǒ gān ma yāo yòng zì jǐ de rì jì běn xiě ?

Why would I write in my own diary?

少数派May 2026

假就算了,吃个亏嘛,能骑就行,随时可能爆胎,实在无法忍受。

jiǎ jiù suàn le , chī gè kuī ma , néng qí jiù háng , suí shí kě néng bào tāi , shí zài wú fǎ rěn shòu .

Never mind the fake parts—it's just a minor setback. As long as it runs, that's fine, but the risk of a flat tire at any moment is just unbearable.

99 健康网Apr 2026

渐冻症会感觉异常嘛?视听触嗅觉通常保持正常的特征

jiān dòng zhèng huì gǎn jué yì cháng ma ? shì tīng chù xiù jué tōng cháng bǎo chí zhèng cháng de tè zhēng

Does ALS cause sensory abnormalities? Vision, hearing, touch, and smell typically remain normal.

Tatoeba

什么事?干嘛一脸凶巴巴的。

Shénmeshì? gànmá yī liǎn xiōng bābā de.

What's the matter? You look very angry.

Tatoeba

妳干嘛不穿件连衣裙呢?

Nǐ gànmá bù chuān jiàn liányīqún ne?

Why don't you wear a dress?

Tatoeba

我干嘛在跟你叨叨这些?

Wǒ gànmá zài gēn nǐ dāodao zhèxiē?

Why am I telling you all this?

Tatoeba

你要用这辆车干嘛?

Nǐ yào yòng zhè liàng chē gànmá?

What are you going to use this car for?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 口 (mouth) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced ma

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 嘛 (ma) mean in Chinese?
嘛 (ma) primarily means "modal particle indicating that sth is obvious." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1617 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 嘛 and 魔?
嘛 (ma) and 魔 (mó) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 鬼 (same 麻 component).
How many strokes does 嘛 have?
嘛 is written with 14 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 嘛?
The radical associated with 嘛 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 嘛?
嘛 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 麻 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口麻 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 嘛?
Common words with 嘛 include: 达赖喇嘛 (dá lài lǎ ma, "Dalai Lama"); 喇嘛 (lǎ ma, "lama, spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism"); 要嘛 (yào ma, "either ..."); 干嘛 (gàn má, "what are you doing?"); 喇嘛教 (lǎ ma jiào, "Lamaism"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 嘛 (ma)?
Several characters share the pronunciation ma: 马 (horse), 吗 (question particle), 妈 (mother), 麻 (hemp, numb), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 嘛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 嘛 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 嘛 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.