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惊讶 (jīng yà) — surprised, astonished

Definition

惊讶 is a neutral ‘surprised/astonished’ — describes the reaction itself, with no positive or negative tilt. 惊喜 adds a happy ‘pleasantly surprised’ flavor; 震惊 is a much stronger ‘shocked’.

adjective
surprisedastonished

Examples

  • ，惊讶。
    Tīng dào zhè ge xiāo xi, tā fēi cháng jīng yà.
    He was very surprised to hear this news.
  • 惊讶。
    Tā jīng yà dì zhēng dà le yǎn jing.
    She opened her eyes wide in surprise.
  • 惊讶。
    Dà jiā duì shí yàn jié guǒ gǎn dào jīng yà.
    Everyone felt surprised at the experimental results.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

惊jīngsurprise
讶yàsurprise

惊 and 讶 both carry surprise senses, together describing being amazed.

Characters in this word

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
忄Written in full as心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
京
京jīng惊jīng
Same sound today

惊 is made from 忄 (heart) and 京, which gives the sound.

Open 惊 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6HSK 2.0 Level 6Emotions & Feelings2000 Most Frequent Chinese Words3000 Most Frequent Chinese Words5000 Most Frequent Chinese Words

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