玛 (mǎ) is a Chinese character meaning “agate (only in 玛瑙)”. It is written from 王 (king) and 马 (horse), side by side, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “agate (a jade-like stone)”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
王 + 马
Left–right structure
Structure from: ids-derived (⿰王马；左旁为玉部「王字旁」，右为马声；已与 hanzi-writer-data 七笔笔顺逐笔核验)
Memory aid
On the left, 王 — here it is the jade radical, so the character is about a stone, not a king. On the right, 马 (mǎ, horse) carries no horse meaning at all: it is only lending its sound, mǎ. A jade stone that sounds like "mǎ".
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 玛瑙mǎ nǎoagate玛 = mǎspoken asmá nǎo
- 玛丽mǎ lìMary (transliterated given name)玛 = mǎ
Go deeper
All readings
agate
agate (only in 玛瑙); also used to write the sound "ma" in foreign names
用于「玛瑙」，指一种有纹带的玉石；也用来音译外国人名中的 ma 音。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 玛瑙mǎ nǎoagate玛 = mǎspoken asmá nǎo
- 玛丽mǎ lìMary (transliterated given name)玛 = mǎ
Sound component
马 family exact
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 玛 mean?
玛 (mǎ) means agate (only in 玛瑙); also used to write the sound "ma" in foreign names.
How do you pronounce 玛?
It is pronounced mǎ.
What parts is 玛 made of?
王 (king) and 马 (horse), side by side. The recorded source is: ids-derived (⿰王马；左旁为玉部「王字旁」，右为马声；已与 hanzi-writer-data 七笔笔顺逐笔核验). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 玛 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 玛?
玉. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 玛?
Common ones are 玛瑙 and 玛丽. The reading of 玛 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.