涯

yá
noun #36,914

Meanings

  1. 1 edge; shore; horizon
  2. 2 limit; bound

Examples

HSK 4
Shēng yě yǒu yá, ér zhī yě wú yá.
Life has a limit, but knowledge has none.
HSK 5
Tiānyá-hǎijiǎo, yǒngbù fēnlí.
To the ends of the earth, never to part.

Tips

history
The second example is a famous opening line from Zhuangzi 《庄子·养生主》: 吾生也有涯, 而知也无涯 - used by Chinese students for centuries to warn against burning out chasing infinite knowledge with finite years.
memory
涯 today appears almost only in compounds: 天涯 ('horizon, far-off place'), 海涯 ('sea's edge'), 生涯 ('career, life'), 无涯 ('boundless'). Three-dot water radical 氵 + 厓 (cliff) gives the sound and the 'edge of water' image.

Components

radical
氵 shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left - the side-form of 水. It indexes 涯 in the water family with 河 river, 海 sea, 湖 lake. A 涯 is literally where land meets water - the shore or water's edge - which is why the water radical leads.
phonetic
厓 yá
cliff; precipice
Right side 厓 is a cliff (厂) over stacked earth (圭), supplying the yá sound and a sharp semantic flavour - a steep drop at the edge. Combined with water, the picture sharpens into 'water's edge', extending to the figurative 'limit; horizon' of 生涯 'life's span'.

Stroke Order

涯 yá