奈
Tap the pinyin to hear it
used in expressions that convey frustration and futility, such as 無奈|无奈[wu2 nai4] and 莫可奈何|莫可奈何[mo4 ke3 nai4 he2] (literary); used for its phonetic value in writing foreign words
- HSK 3.0
- Level 5
- Old HSK
- Level 5
- Strokes
- 8
- Radical
- 大 +5
- Structure
- Top–bottom 上下
- Traditional
- 奈
- Common rank
- #1,890
- Unicode
- U+5948
Sound it out + =
Formation & memory
Break the character into parts you already know.
Words with 奈
The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 格林奈尔大学 | Grinnell College (private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, USA) | |
| 康奈尔大学 | Cornell University | |
| 西奈半岛 | Sinai Peninsula | |
| 西奈山 | Mount Sinai | |
| 无可奈何 | have no way out; have no alternative; abbr. to 無奈|无奈[wu2 nai4] | |
| 奈良时代 | Nara period (710-794) in early Japanese history | |
| 奈及利亚 | (Tw) Nigeria | |
| 香奈儿 | Chanel (brand name) | |
| 神奈川 | Kanagawa (prefecture in Japan) | |
| 康奈尔 | Cornell (University) | |
| 莫可奈何 | see 無可奈何|无可奈何[wu2 ke3 nai4 he2] | |
| 奈洛比 | Nairobi, capital of Kenya (Tw) | |
| 山奈 | (loanword) cyanide; variant of 山柰[shan1 nai4] | |
| 无奈 | to have no alternative; frustrated; exasperated; helpless; (conjunction) but unfortunately | |
| 西奈 | Sinai Peninsula | |
| 万般无奈 | to have no way out; to have no alternative | |
| 林奈 | Carl Linnaeus; Carl Linné | |
| 科奈 | Kenai (Peninsula, Lake, Mountains), Alaska | |
| 基奈 | Kenai (Peninsula, Lake, Mountains), Alaska (Tw) | |
| 没奈何 | to have no alternative; to be helpless |
Sound family
These characters use 奈 as their sound component — compare how they read.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 奈 sound part | but, how; to bear, to stand, to endure | |
| 萘 | naphthalene | |
| 捺 | to press down firmly with the fingers |