呵呵 (hē hē) — ha-ha (sound of laughter, often written to indi… | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Onomatopoeia for light laughter — in chat/messaging it often signals sarcasm, dismissal, or awkwardness rather than real amusement, so read tone carefully.

onomatopoeia

ha-ha (sound of laughter, often written to indicate a light chuckle or online sarcasm)

Examples

呵呵，。
hē hē, Nǐ jiǎng de xiào hua zhēn hǎo xiào.
Ha-ha, the joke you told was really funny.
，“呵呵”。
Tā kàn wán nà tiáo xiāo xi, zhī huí le "hē hē" liǎng gè zì.
After reading that message, he only replied with the two characters 'ha-ha'.
呵呵，？。
hē hē, Nǐ shuō de shì zhēn de ma? wǒ bú tài xiāng xìn.
Hmph, are you telling the truth? I don't really believe it.

Origin

Single-morpheme word

构词法gòucífǎ

拟声nǐshēngOnomatopoeia

The characters imitate a sound; their individual meanings play no part.

The two 呵 sounds have no separate meaning; together they imitate a light laugh.

Sound-only characters

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

口可呵

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

可

可kě呵hē

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 口 (mouth) points to a mouth action, while 可 gives the sound.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

口可呵

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

可

可kě呵hē

Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left part 口 (mouth) points to a mouth action, while 可 gives the sound.

Appears in

Emotions & Feelings 5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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