呀

Mandarin · pinyin yā#

Meanings · yā

  1. ah (used to express surprise)
  2. (onom.) creaking
Mandarin · pinyin ya#

Meanings · ya

  1. (particle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel, expressing surprise or doubt)
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Characters in this entry

呀
ya · particle used to express surprise or mild emphasis; (Cant.) slurred form of the number ten
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1 · ya1

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1character link18same-tone records
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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

aa4 · haa1 · ngaa4

Cantonese word readings for 呀. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character · Etymology 1

  1. to be surprised
  2. Interjection for expressing surprise
  3. (onomatopoeia) creak
  4. a classifier

character · Etymology 2

  1. synonym of 啊 (“Sentence-final exclamation particle”) Normally used after words ending in -a, -o, -e, -i, -ü.

character · Etymology 3

  1. (Cantonese) Sentence-final particle for softening statements or questions.
  2. (Cantonese) Particle used after list items in a list of examples.

character · Etymology 4

  1. (Cantonese) Sentence-final particle expressing surprise and suspicion.

character · Etymology 5

  1. (of mouth) opened
  2. (Cantonese) empty

character · Etymology 6

  1. (colloquial) -ty

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

呀 · ya1 · ya5
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source lines 20,815, 20,816
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source records呀 呀 [ya1] /ah (used to express surprise)/(onom.) creaking/呀 呀 [ya5] /(particle equivalent to 啊 after a vowel, expressing surprise or doubt)/