鸦 (yā): crow

鸦 (yā) is a Chinese character meaning “crow.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 牙 (phonetic) and 鸟 (semantic). It ranks #2323 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 鸦 bird. Its radical form 鸟 (bird) appears in many related characters such as 鸡 (jī, chicken), 鸟 (niǎo, bird), 鸭 (yā, duck).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 鸟 bird9 strokesFrequency #2323牙 phonetic鸟 semantic

Definitions

  1. crow

Etymology & Origin

鸦

pictophoneticbird

Decomposition: ⿰牙鸟 (layout: left-right)

Components:牙phonetic鸟semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
乌鸦wū yācrow
涂鸦tú yāgraffiti
鸦片yā piàn(loanword) opium
鸦雀无声yā què wú shēnglit. crow and peacock make no sound
渡鸦dù yā(bird species of China) common raven (Corvus corax)
里海地鸦lǐ hǎi dì yā(bird species of China) Turkestan ground jay
天下乌鸦一般黑tiān xià wū yā yī bān hēiall crows are black (idiom)
鸦片战争yā piàn zhàn zhēngthe Opium Wars of 1840-1842 and 1860-1861
水老鸦shuǐ lǎo yācommon name for cormorant
白尾地鸦bái wěi dì yā(bird species of China) Xinjiang ground jay (Podoces biddulphi)
黑尾地鸦hēi wěi dì yā(bird species of China) Mongolian ground jay (Podoces hendersoni)
红嘴山鸦hóng zuǐ shān yā(bird species of China) red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
黄嘴山鸦huáng zuǐ shān yā(bird species of China) alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus)
达乌里寒鸦dá wū lǐ hán yā(bird species of China) Daurian jackdaw (Coloeus dauuricus)
大嘴乌鸦dà zuǐ wū yā(bird species of China) large-billed crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)
51
Total compounds
10
As first character
43
As last character
47
As middle character

鸦 appears in 51 compound words: 10 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 47 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 鸦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

涂tú
0.6494,200 co-occurrences
乌wū
0.5665,580 co-occurrences
片piàn
0.51611,724 co-occurrences
瘾yǐn
0.495216 co-occurrences
雀qiāo
0.471936 co-occurrences
争zhēng
0.4602,574 co-occurrences
嘴zuǐ
0.457762 co-occurrences
葱cōng
0.457162 co-occurrences
蓝lán
0.442864 co-occurrences
贸mào
0.437762 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

鸦片战争Yāpiàn ZhànzhēngHSK 7+

Opium War; the Opium Wars

鸦雀无声yāquèwúshēngHSK 7+

dead silent; utterly quiet

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

乌鸦是聪明的鸟类，会使用工具获取食物。

Wūyā shì cōngming de niǎolèi, huì shǐyòng gōngjù huòqǔ shíwù.

Crows are intelligent birds that use tools to obtain food.

Tatoeba

宗教是人民的鸦片。

Zōngjiào shì rénmín de yāpiàn.

Religion is the opium of the people.

Tatoeba

突然间，鸦雀无声。

Tūrán jiān, yāquèwúshēng.

Suddenly, everything fell silent.

Tatoeba

这只乌鸦飞走了。

Zhè zhī wūyā fēi zǒu le.

The crow flew away.

Character Family

鸟 Radical Family — Characters sharing the bird radical

鹅é鸽gē鹤hè鹏péng鸭yā鹰yīng鸡jī鸣míng鸟niǎo

Related Characters

鸡jī鸟niǎo鸭yā鸣míng鸽gē鹅é鹏péng鹤hè鹰yīng

Homophones — Characters pronounced yā

芽yá呀yā丫yā压yā押yā鸭yā牙yá崖yá

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鸦 (yā) mean in Chinese?
鸦 (yā) primarily means "crow." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2323 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 鸦 have?
鸦 is written with 9 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 鸦?
The radical associated with 鸦 is 鸟 (bird). This radical appears in many characters related to bird.
What are the components of 鸦?
鸦 is composed of: 牙 (phonetic), 鸟 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰牙鸟 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鸦?
Common words with 鸦 include: 乌鸦 (wū yā, "crow"); 涂鸦 (tú yā, "graffiti"); 鸦片 (yā piàn, "(loanword) opium"); 鸦雀无声 (yā què wú shēng, "lit. crow and peacock make no sound"); 渡鸦 (dù yā, "(bird species of China) common raven (Corvus corax)"). There are over 51 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鸦 (yā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation yā: 芽 (bud), 呀 (ah (used to express surprise)), 丫 (fork), 压 (to press), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 鸦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 鸦 and the traditional form is 鴉.

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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.