吶
battle cry; sentence-final particle (abbr. for 呢啊[ne5 a5] or variant of 哪[na5])
Closest English meanings
shout·cry out
The Calligrapher — Liǔ Gōngquán 柳公权
Tang regular-script master famed for 'bones' of strength; rival to Yan Zhenqing.
Tang calligrapher (778–865), master of regular script — Tang master of bone-strength regular script, paired forever with Yan Zhenqing as 'Yan sinew, Liu bone'. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
吶 (simplified 呐) pairs 口 with 內 (inside), one who holds words within yet pushes them out—to shout or speak haltingly. 史記 has soldiers 呐喊 (shout/cry out) to steel their courage before battle, and 呐呐 describes the tongue-tied who fumble for speech. The character straddles two states: the loud war cry and the shy stammer, both about voice struggling past the throat to be heard at last by others.
Common words & phrases
- 呐喊 shout · cry out
- 呐呐 hesitant in speech
Read the story behind the character
Fans 呐喊 (shout/cry out) for their team at the stadium, and a nervous speaker 呐呐 (haltingly) thanks the crowd. Online, users 呐喊 for a cause with hashtags, while a child 呐呐 explains a broken toy. The character holds modern voice at both extremes—the roar of a crowd and the small, stumbling words of someone finally speaking up after long silence in a room full of strangers.
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