家 jiā house; family
Made up of [宀 mián roof radical 40, 豕 shǐ pig; swine radical 152]Made with 10 strokes.
A picture of a pig under a roof, from ancient days when livestock lived with the family. Also a measure word for things with a group of people including businesses and hotels
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 宀 mián component: 安 ān (peace) 宝 bǎo (jewel) ; 定 dìng (to set) ; 富 fù (rich) ; 宫 gōng (palace) ; 官 guān (official) ; 寒 hán (cold) ; 客 kè (customer) ; 宁 nìng (better) ; 容 róng (to hold) ; 室 shì (room) ; 实 shí (real) ; 宋 song (Song) ; 它 tā (it) ; 穴 xué (cave) ; 宜 yí (proper) ; 院 yuàn (courtyard) ; 灾 zāi (disaster) ; 字 zì (letter)
Also uses 豕 shǐ component: 蒙 měng (Mongol)
Different tone
甲 jiǎ (first in list)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Stroke order for character 家, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚
Cities
张家口 Zhangjiakou, Hebei石家庄 Shijiazhuang, Hebei
张家港 Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu
张家界 Zhangjiajie, Hunan
Proverbs
白手起家 bái shǒu qǐ jiā To build up something from nothing家丑不可外扬 jiā chǒu bù kě wài yáng Keep family problems within the family
家家户户 jiā jiā hù hù The whole community
家徒四壁 jiā tú sì bì An empty house with just bare walls. To be very poor. There is a story from the Han dynasty of two rivals for the hand of a young lady. One was rich and the other was very poor, but due to the skill of the poor man on the qin (type of lute) the lady chose the poor man to the astonishment of the rich man
丧家之狗 sàng jiā zhī gǒu Fleeing in fear and panic due to appearance of an unexpected visitor
家喻户晓 jiā yù hù xiǎo A person or fact known to everybody. Something or somebody well known