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家 jiā — home; family, household; a specialist (as a suffix, e.g. 画家 painter); measure word for shops and businesses

jiā (first tone, high and level)

home; family, household; a specialist (as a suffix, e.g. 画家 painter); measure word for shops and businesses

10 strokesRadical 宀Frequency #44
Words containing 家Character writing labAsk the AI tutor

Pinyin

  • jiā (first tone, high and level)

home; family, household; a specialist (as a suffix, e.g. 画家 painter); measure word for shops and businesses

Character breakdown

Ideographic description

⿱宀豕The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.

  • 宀meaning partno entry yetA roof: whatever the character means, it happens indoors.
  • 豕meaning partno entry yet豕 shǐ, a pig, drawn with its snout, back, legs and tail — the livestock kept under the same roof.

Mnemonic

A pig 豕 under a roof 宀. In settled farming villages a household was defined by the animals it sheltered, so roof plus pig came to stand for the home and the people in it. The same character counts businesses — 一家饭馆, one restaurant — and names specialists: 画家, a painter.

A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.

Words containing 家

Radical 宀 — other characters