漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
使: use, send on a mission
Also: order, messenger, envoy, ambassador, cause
亻 carries the meaning · 吏 is drawn in
Three readings, and the words that use each
シshi · on'yomi · in compounds
- 使用するしようするuse [v.t.]
- 行使するこうしするexercise [v.t.]
- 駆使するくしするuse freely
- 使役形しえきけいcausative form
- 使命しめいmission
- 大使たいしambassador
- 天使てんしangel
つかうtsukau · kun'yomi · on its own
- 使うつかうuse
つかいtsukai · kun'yomi
- 魔法使いまほうつかいwizard
Also read -つかい, -づかい, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)人, as 亻 (meaning) + 吏 (sound)
However, the phonetic component should add part of the meaning since it represents a hand holding perhaps a flag to mean "representative, ambassador".
Source: Wiktionary, 使 (rev. 94108287), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“See the person standing tall, ready to interact with the world! When this radical appears on the left, it signals that the kanji describes a human quality, a social relationship, or an action that people perform.”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · shǐ
Same form: 使 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 使 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 使 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin shǐ most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.