漢字Kanji · in Time & Sequence
三: three
JLPT N53 strokesGrade 1Your ink: 白 Not met
一 carries the meaning
3 strokes
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
サンsan · on'yomi · in compounds
- 三人さんにん3 people
- 三時さんじ3 o'clock
- 三枚さんまい3 (flat objects)
- 三月さんがつMarch
みっつmittsu · kun'yomi · on its own
- 三日みっか3 days, 3rd day of the month
- 三つみっつ3 (pieces)
Also read ゾウ, み, みつ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogram (指事)一 one + 一 one + 一 one
Three parallel strokes. Triplication of 一 (“one”).
Source: Wiktionary, 三 (rev. 93531259), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Everything begins with one. This radical is the first strike of the brush that defines the horizon, the first step of a long journey, and the very foundation of the mathematical world.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
Also read ゾウ
11 kanji share this on'yomiIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · sān
Same form: 三 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 三 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 三 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin sān most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.
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