马 (mǎ) is a Chinese character meaning “horse”. It is written from ㇕ and ㇉ and 一 (one), and takes 3 strokes.
Build the character for “horse”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
㇕ + ㇉ + 一
Top–middle–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+9A6C and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 three-stroke modern glyph inspection
Memory aid
A horizontal turn (㇕) is the horse's head and mane, the bent hook (㇉) is its body and tail, and one horizontal stroke (一) is the ground it runs across: 马.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
3 strokes
In real words
- 马上mǎ shàngimmediately; right away马 = mǎ
- 马路mǎ lùroad; street马 = mǎ
- 戎马róng mǎwar horse; by extension, life in the army马 = mǎ
- 罗马luó mǎRome马 = mǎ
- 马匹mǎ pǐhorses (collective term)马 = mǎspoken asmá pǐ
- 驮马tuó mǎpack horse马 = mǎ
- 斑马bān mǎzebra马 = mǎ
- 马驹mǎ jūfoal; colt马 = mǎ
- 骏马jùn mǎfine horse; steed马 = mǎ
- 骑马qí mǎto ride a horse马 = mǎ
Go deeper
All readings
horse
horse; the knight piece in Chinese chess
哺乳动物，善于奔跑，可以供人骑乘或拉车。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 马上mǎ shàngimmediately; right away马 = mǎ
- 马路mǎ lùroad; street马 = mǎ
- 戎马róng mǎwar horse; by extension, life in the army马 = mǎ
- 罗马luó mǎRome马 = mǎ
- 马匹mǎ pǐhorses (collective term)马 = mǎspoken asmá pǐ
- 驮马tuó mǎpack horse马 = mǎ
- 斑马bān mǎzebra马 = mǎ
- 马驹mǎ jūfoal; colt马 = mǎ
- 骏马jùn mǎfine horse; steed马 = mǎ
- 骑马qí mǎto ride a horse马 = mǎ
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 马 mean?
马 (mǎ) means horse; the knight piece in Chinese chess.
How do you pronounce 马?
It is pronounced mǎ.
What parts is 马 made of?
㇕ and ㇉ and 一 (one). The recorded source is: Unicode U+9A6C and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 three-stroke modern glyph inspection. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 马 have?
3. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 马?
马. 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 马?
Common ones are 马上 and 马路. The reading of 马 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.