What 蚻 means
In classical Chinese glossaries, 蚻 names a small cicada. The Erya, an early Chinese glossary, pairs 蚻 with 蜻蜻 and glosses it as a cicada smaller than the usual kind.
A later book of regional speech, Fangyan, distinguishes cicadas by size and markings: 麥蚻 is the smaller kind, while 蜻蜻 names a marked kind. Mandarin pronounces 蚻 roughly like “cha,” with the tongue tip farther back and a rising tone; Pinyin writes it zhá, while the keyboard entry is zha.
What does 虼蚻 mean in Taiwanese Hokkien?
In Taiwanese Hokkien, 虼蚻 means cockroach. That reading belongs to the full compound; it does not make standalone 蚻 a Mandarin word for cockroach.
As of 2026, Taiwan's Ministry of Education dictionary lists 虼蠽, 虼蠘, and 加絕 as alternate spellings. If someone sends 蚻 by itself, ask which language or surrounding word they mean.
The cicada sense is classical and dictionary-like; the cockroach sense belongs to a Taiwanese Hokkien compound.
Do not assign the cockroach reading to 蚻 alone; it belongs to 虼蚻.
Who writes 蚻
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsAsk for the language or surrounding word; the character alone does not settle the intended reading.
Related characters
2
Combination ideas
2Questions people ask
3Is 蚻 an emoji?
No. 蚻 is a text character rendered by a CJK font, not an emoji design.
What does 虼蚻 mean?
A cockroach. Taiwanese Hokkien uses the whole compound 虼蚻 for this meaning.
Why does 蚻 look different in another font?
CJK fonts can draw the same ideograph with different proportions. If a font lacks it, the device may use a fallback font; the changed shape does not change the character.
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How to type or find 蚻
- Search it as
- 蚻 meaning · zhá · zha · 蚻字 · 蠽 · 𧊢 · 麥蚻 · 虼蚻
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
蚻\86BBCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.