茶 — Edit Snapshot — Chinese Character Wiki

chá HSK1

tea

approved by Peter Olson · Mar 2, 2026, 04:47 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Mar 2, 2026, 04:47 AM

fixed strokes for traditional variant

Changed fields: fragmentsTrad, historicalPronunciations

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 余 represents the sound.

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

余 Sound component

yú I

Change in sound

茶 and 余 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
茶 *lˤra
余 *la

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	drae	lˤra	(name of a plant)