King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “creaking”

呀
yā
ah (used to express surprise); (onom.) creaking

The closest CC-CEDICT match for creaking is 呀 (yā), defined as: ah (used to express surprise); (onom.) creaking.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

呀 yā
particle used to express surprise
radical 30 ⼝ · 7 strokes

Other Chinese words for “creaking”

WordPinyinMeaning
吱呀zhī yā(onom.) creaking
唧唧嘎嘎jī ji gā gā(onom.) cackling; creaking

Related words

Other words that share a character with 呀.

WordPinyinMeaning
哎呀āi yāinterjection of wonder, shock or admiration
啊呀ā yāinterjection of surprise; Oh my!
天呀tiān yaHeavens!; My goodness!
吱呀zhī yā(onom.) creaking
咿呀学语 (咿呀學語)yī yā xué yǔ(of a baby) to babble
呀呀学语 (呀呀學語)yā yā xué yǔsee 咿呀学语 (yī yā xué yǔ)

See also: Japanese symbol for “creaking”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.