猾 (huá) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

猾

huá[hua2]Tone 2

sly

HSK 7

Guru Deep Dive

English · sly

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:13

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (dog radical) occupies slightly less than a third of the width, leaving ample space for the complex right component 骨.

1. Meaning

sly, cunning, crafty

mischievousslick

AdjectiveNeutralBound morpheme#personality#behavior#trait

Sample Usage

他这个人很狡猾。
Tā zhè gè rén hěn jiǎohuá.
He is a very crafty and sly person.
滑稽
huájī
funny, comical (using the related compound form)

2. Sound

/[xwa³⁵]/Tone: 35

猾

huáhua2

´(35)

=huá

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

hua

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "a" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Velar Fricative

Sounds like: h sound like in 'hot'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Gentle throat friction (like fogging glasses on a cold day).

Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of the throat constricted slightly with air expelled freely.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: rhymes with 'wah' in 'wah-wah'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'wah'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T2 (35)

3 → 5 (35)

2nd Tone (Mid-Rising)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 2 rises like an upward questioning inflection in English ('Huh?').

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the second tone (rising 35) with the fourth tone (falling 51), turning huá (sly) into huà.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A rising hand sweep upwards from low left to high right, mirroring a rising inflection in English when asking 'What?'.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 13 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (dog radical) occupies slightly less than a third of the width, leaving ample space for the complex right component 骨.

4. Components

Radical 犭 · Dog Radical (animals, beasts, or human traits likened to animals)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 犭 (indicates animalistic nature or crafty behavior)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 骨 (original sound: gǔ / huá)

A canine animal (犭) with bones (骨) that bends and twists in a slippery, crafty manner.

犭 dog / animal classifier
骨 bone component providing phonetics and structural framework

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

5· Phonetic Root: 骨 (gū)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from the animal/beast radical (犭) and the bone character (骨), originally denoting an animal with slippery, hard-to-catch traits or bone flexibility associated with craftiness.

Semantic Evolution: Shifted from referring to slippery physical movements or wild animals to describing human deceitfulness, slyness, and cunning.

Often paired with 狡 (jiǎo) to form the common compound 狡猾 (jiǎohuá), meaning cunning and sly.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: カツ / Kun: 狡い

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

활

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

A crafty wild dog (犭) sneaks around, so flexible it feels like it has no bones (骨), making it extremely sly (huá).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

骨

gūbonePhonetic Core (声旁)

滑

huáslippery, smooth, to slip, sly+ 氵 (water)

鶻

+ 鳥 (bird)

鹘

gǔused in 鶻鵃|鹘鸼[gu3 zhou1]+ 鸟 (bird)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

滑(huá)

滑 has water (氵) meaning slippery water or ice, whereas 猾 has dog (犭) meaning a sly, animalistic person.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

这个人做事非常狡[___]。

Clue: huá

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the radical 犭 (dog) with 氵 (water) from the lookalike character 滑 (slippery).

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 猾, what is its primary meaning and what radical does it use?

Production: How do you write the character for 'sly' (huá) using the dog radical and bone component?

猾huásly

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