(): border, horizon, shore

() is a Chinese character meaning “border.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2494 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. border
  2. horizon
  3. shore

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵厓 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
shēng yácareer
tiān yá hǎi jiǎothe ends of the earth
tiān yáthe other end of the world
làng jì tiān yáto roam far and wide (idiom)
hǎi jiǎo tiān yásee 天涯海角[tian1 ya2 hai3 jiao3]
xué hǎi wú yásea of learning, no horizon (idiom)
hǎi nèi cún zhī jǐ , tiān yá ruò bǐ línclose friend in a distant land, far-flung realms as next door
dì jiǎo tiān yáThe ends of the earth
tiān yá hé chù wú fāng cǎothere are plenty more fish in the sea (idiom)
wú shēng yě yǒu yá , ér zhī yě wú yáLife is short, learning is limitless
tiān yá qūTianya, a district of Sanya City 三亞市|三亚市[San1 ya4 Shi4], Hainan
tiān yá ruò bǐ línfar-flung realms as next door (idiom)
tiān yá bǐ línsee 天涯若比鄰|天涯若比邻[tian1 ya2 ruo4 bi3 lin2]
róng mǎ shēng yáarmy life (idiom)
zhǐ chǐ tiān yáso close, yet worlds apart (idiom)
16
Total compounds
0
As first character
56
As last character
44
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 0 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 44 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.

shēng
0.689564,492 co-occurrences
zhí
0.56260,532 co-occurrences
0.50761,194 co-occurrences
bàng
0.49716,122 co-occurrences
qiú
0.42143,992 co-occurrences
qiāo
0.4122,394 co-occurrences
0.39313,644 co-occurrences
zǎo
0.39014,934 co-occurrences
0.3894,452 co-occurrences
shǒu
0.37626,388 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

dì jiǎo tiān yáHSK 7+

The ends of the earth

phrase
hǎi jiǎo tiān yáHSK 7+

see 天涯海角[tian1 ya2 hai3 jiao3]

phrase
làng jì tiān yáHSK 7+

to roam far and wide (idiom); to travel the world

phrase
tiānyáhǎijiǎoHSK 7+

ends of the world; ends of the earth; remote place; separated worlds apart

phrase
xuéhǎiwúyáHSK 7+

knowledge is infinite like a boundless ocean; there is no limits to what one can learn

phrase
zhǐ chǐ tiān yáHSK 7+

so close, yet worlds apart (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

清晨的面波光粼粼,倒映着岸边的柳树。

qīng chén de yá miàn bō guāng 粼 粼 , dǎo yìng zhe àn biān de liǔ shù .

The water's edge glistened in the early morning light, reflecting the willow trees along the shore.

BastillepostMar 2026

...动员费兹柏德历夺威士伯锦标赛冠军 职业生第三个PGA巡回赛胜利

. . . dòng yuán fèi zī bǎi dé lì duó wēi shì bó jǐn biāo sài guàn jūn zhí yè shēng yá dì sān gè P G A xún huí sài shèng lì

...Fitzpatrick Wins the Whistlebay Championship, Claiming His Third PGA Tour Victory

EttodayFeb 2026

杜拜封王! 梅德韦杰夫不战而胜夺生第23冠

dù bài fēng wáng ! méi dé 韦 jié fū bù zhàn ér shèng duó shēng yá dì 2 3 guàn

Dubai is crowned! Medvedev won the 23rd title of his career without a fight

TvbsFeb 2026

冬奥/日双人花滑“璃来龙”生金满贯 透露未来一起退役

dōng ào rì shuāng rén huā huá lí lái lóng shēng yá jīn mǎn guàn tòu lù wèi lái yī qǐ tuì yì

Winter Olympics/Japan pair figure skating "Lilailong" career golden slam revealed that they will retire together in the future

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...客运重现怀旧女车掌 高雄“真车掌”分享职甘苦

. . . kè yùn chóng xiàn huái jiù nǚ chē zhǎng gāo xióng zhēn chē zhǎng fēn xiǎng zhí yá gān kǔ

... Passenger transport recreates nostalgic female conductors Kaohsiung's "real conductors" share the joys and sorrows of their careers

StheadlineFeb 2026

英超|尼高奥莱利生首次梅开二度 哥迪奥拿喜见青训成果

yīng chāo ní gāo ào 莱 lì shēng yá shǒu cì méi kāi èr dù gē dí ào ná xǐ jiàn qīng xùn chéng guǒ

Premier League | Nico O'Reilly scored twice for the first time in his career, and Guardiola was happy to see the results of his youth training

Tatoeba

他的政治生完蛋了。

Tā de zhèngzhì shēngyá wándàn le.

His political career is done for.

Tatoeba

海上升明月,天共此时。

Hǎishàng shēng míngyuè, tiānyá gòng cǐshí.

As the moon rises above the sea, we share the same time though we are far apart.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 涯 (yá) mean in Chinese?
涯 (yá) primarily means "border." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2494 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 涯 have?
涯 is written with 11 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 涯?
The radical associated with 涯 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 涯?
涯 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 厓 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵厓 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 涯?
Common words with 涯 include: 生涯 (shēng yá, "career"); 天涯海角 (tiān yá hǎi jiǎo, "the ends of the earth"); 天涯 (tiān yá, "the other end of the world"); 浪迹天涯 (làng jì tiān yá, "to roam far and wide (idiom)"); 海角天涯 (hǎi jiǎo tiān yá, "see 天涯海角[tian1 ya2 hai3 jiao3]"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 涯 (yá)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yá: 丫 (fork), 压 (to press), 押 (to mortgage), 鸦 (crow), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 涯 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 涯 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.