Stroke order

阿 (Kangxi radical 170,阜+5, 8 strokes,cangjie input弓中一弓口 (NLMNR),four-corner7122₀,composition⿰阝可)

• 啊,婀,娿,痾,屙,㢌,䋪,錒(锕)
• 𡹣,𣶰,𠥍,𫮄,𫕖,𨼼,𨵌(𬮰)
• 𮥌,𮀄,𮀫,𭊎,𬯜,𬁭,𬯣,𬯩

• ア(Katakana character derived fromMan'yōgana)
• 𛀄(Hentaigana character derived fromMan'yōgana)

• Kangxi Dictionary:page 1348, character 6
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 41599
• Dae Jaweon: page 1850, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4119, character 11
• Unihan data for U+963F

Historical forms of the character阿
Warring States
Bronze inscriptions

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声,OC*qaːl): semantic 阜 + phonetic 可(OC*kʰaːlʔ): Originally meaning a big mound.

FromProto-Sino-Tibetan*ʔa(ŋ/k)-(noun prefix) (STEDT). CompareBurmeseအ-(a.-,“idem”) (Schuessler, 2007, p. 149).

“atto-”

Borrowed fromEnglishatto-.

阿

1. Prefix used in front of the surname or last character of someone’s given name to express familiarity or friendliness (traditionally used in rural or southern Chinese dialects).

   Alternative forms:(dated)亞 /亚,(Hong Kong Cantonese neologism)牙

   阿爸  ― ābà  ―  dad

   阿扁  ― Ā Biǎn  ― Ah Bian (Chen Shui-bian)

   《阿Q正傳》／《阿Q正传》  ― “Āqiū Zhèngzhuàn”  ― The True Story ofAh Q

   • 2016, “阿珍爱上了阿强”,仁科,茂涛 (lyrics),茂涛 (music), performed by五条人:

     阿珍愛上了阿強 / 在一個有星星的夜晚[MSC,trad.]
     阿珍爱上了阿强 / 在一个有星星的夜晚[MSC,simp.]

     Ā Zhēn àishàng leĀ Qiáng  /  zài yīge yǒu xīngxīng de yèwǎn[Pinyin]

     A Zhen fell in love with A Qiang / One night under a starlit sky

2. (Hokkien, honorific)Prefix to rank seniority for kinship terms.

   阿兄[Hokkien]  ― a-hiaⁿ[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  eldest brother

3. alternative form of啊(ā, á, ǎ, à, a,particle)
4. Used in transcription.

   阿尔及利亚  ― Ā'ěrjílìyà  ― Algeria

   阿根廷  ― Āgēntíng  ― Argentina

   阿曼  ― Āmàn  ― Oman

   阿姆斯特丹  ― Āmǔsītèdān  ― Amsterdam

   阿克拉  ― Ākèlā  ― Accra

   阿歷山大／阿历山大  ― Ālìshāndà  ― Alexander

   阿們／阿们  ― Āmen  ― amen

   阿米巴  ― āmǐbā  ― amoeba

   阿伯丁[Cantonese]  ― aa³ baak³ ding¹[Jyutping]  ― Aberdeen

   1. short for阿富汗 (Āfùhàn, “Afghanistan”)
   2. short for阿爾巴尼亞／阿尔巴尼亚 (Ā'ěrbāníyà, “Albania”)
   3. short for阿拉伯 (Ālābó, “Arabic”)
5. atto-(SI unit prefix)

• → English:Ah

From何 (hé).

阿

1. (Nanjing Mandarin, Northern Wu, including Suzhounese)Interrogative particle

   • 倷阿是蘇州人？[Suzhounese,trad.]
     倷阿是苏州人？[Suzhounese,simp.]

     ⁶ne⁷aeq-zy₆¹sou-tseu₁-gnin₂[Wugniu]

     Are you Suzhounese?

   • 你阿是先生？[Nanjing Mandarin,trad. andsimp.]

     Lǐ åq shiī siènsen?[Nankinese Pinyin]

     Are you a teacher?

   • 阿要辣油啊？[Nanjing Mandarin,trad. andsimp.]

     [Do you] need chili oil?

   • 1993,蘇州方言詞典, page20:

     倷阿姓趙？[Suzhounese,trad.]
     倷阿姓赵？[Suzhounese,simp.]

     ⁶ne⁷aeq-sin₅⁶zau[Wugniu]

     Is your surname Chao?

阿

1. bigmound;mountain
2. hillside
3. finesilks
4. (literary, of a mountain or stream)bend;corner
5. waterside
6. nearby;near
7. toflatter; topander to

   阿諛奉承／阿谀奉承  ― ēyúfèngchéng  ―  sweet-talking

8. to beunfairlypartial to
9. alternative form of屙(ē,“to excrete”)
10. asurname

• “阿”, in漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1],香港中文大學 (theChinese University of Hong Kong),2014–
• “阿”, in教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien),Ministry of Education, R.O.C.,2025.
• “阿”, in教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien),Ministry of Education, R.O.C.,2025.
• “Entry #5546”, in臺灣客語辭典 [Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka] (overall work in Chinese and Hakka),Ministry of Education, R.O.C.,2022.
• “Entry #13246”, in臺灣客語辭典 [Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka] (overall work in Chinese and Hakka),Ministry of Education, R.O.C.,2022.
• 周存[Zhōu, Cún], editor (2023), “阿”, in长汀话词典 CHANGTINGHUA CIDIAN [Dictionary of Changting Dialect] (overall work in Hakka and Mandarin), Guangzhou:世界图书出版有限公司[World Book Publishing Co., Ltd.],→ISBN, page 1.
• 李如龙[Li, Ru-long];刘福铸[Liu, Fu-zhu];吴华英[Wu, Hua-ying];黄国城[Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019), “阿（～胶、～哥）”, in莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min),Xiamen University Press,→ISBN, page127.

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

• Go-on:あ(a)
• Kan-on:あ(a)
• Kun:くま(kuma,阿)、おもねる(omoneru,阿る)
• Nanori:お(o)、くま(kuma)

FromMiddle Chinese阿 (MC 'a).

• IPA^(key): [a̠]

阿(あ)• (a) 

1. The first letter of Sanskrit,अ (a).

• 阿(あ)字(じ)(aji)
• 阿(あ)吽(うん)(aun)

• 吽(うん)(un)
• 梵(ぼん)字(じ)(bonji)

阿(あ)• (a) 

1. toflatter; topander to
2. ridge (ofroof);eaves
3. A prefix expressing familiarity.
4. Used as a phonetic element, especially in words from Sanskrit.
5. short forアフリカ(Afurika,“Africa”)
6. short for阿波国(Awa no kuni,“Awa Province”)

• “^▲阿”, in漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[2] (in Japanese),The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation,2015–2025

阿 (eumhun언덕아(eondeok a))
阿 (eumhun호칭옥(hoching ok))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out andadd a translation, then remove the text{{rfdef}}.

• 아편 (阿片,apyeon)

• Naver Hanja Dictionary: 阿

阿:Hán Việt readings:a,á
阿:Nôm readings:a,à

(classifier丐 (cái)) 阿

1. chữ Hán form ofa(“acuttingtool consisting of twoblades inserted into a longhandle to cutgrass or toharvestrice”)

• Nom Foundation

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