Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement

乏: destitution, scarce

Also: limited

JLPT N14 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

丿 carries the meaning · 之 is drawn in

4 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

ボウbou · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 貧乏なびんぼうなpoor
  • 欠乏するけつぼうするrun short
  • 貧乏びんぼう
  • 欠乏けつぼう
  • 貧乏人びんぼうにんpoor person; the poor

とぼしいtoboshii · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 乏しいとぼしいmeagre, scarce

Also read ともしい, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Chen Jian suggests that the graph derives from ⿱口⿰止止, an ideogram shared by 範 and 圍: one 止 was omitted, and one stroke was slanted to avoid confusion with 正.

Source: Wiktionary, 乏 (rev. 93645976), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Sweeping stroke (丿) at the top of a shape. It suggests something is being "swept" away until there is almost nothing left—the essence of scarcity.”
From the 丿 diagonal sweeping stroke story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
丿

Also built on diagonal sweeping stroke (丿)

All 35
之

Also built on of (之)

Also read ボウ

31 kanji share this on'yomiAll 31

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
乏 destitution · 丿
vs芝 turf · 艹
乏 has 丿 where 芝 has 艹.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · fá

Same form: 乏 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
乏 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
乏 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin fá 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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