漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
今: now
人 carries the meaning · 一 is drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
コンkon · on'yomi · in compounds
- 今月こんげつthis month
- 今週こんしゅうthis week
- 今晩こんばんtonight
- 今後こんごfrom now on
- 今回こんかいthis time
- 今度こんどthis time, next time
キンkin · on'yomi
- 今上きんじょうcurrent emperor
いまima · kun'yomi · on its own
- 今いまnow
- 今風いまふうmodern style
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 今年ことしthis year
- 今日きょうtoday
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogram (指事)
An inverted 曰 ("to speak"), hence 亼 with a horizontal stroke at the bottom, so the inverted mouth means "not to speak".
Source: Wiktionary, 今 (rev. 93764135), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Person roof (𠆢) + a line. It originally referred to a person being directly "under" a specific, immediate point in time—meaning right "now."”
Connections
今 gives its sound to
The family reading is キン (kin). Sound parts: KanjiVG.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · jīn
Same form: 今 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 今 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 今 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin jīn most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.