漢字Kanji · in Time & Sequence
六: six
亠 and 八 carry the meaning
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Warring States Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ロクroku · on'yomi · in compounds
- 六時ろくじ6 o'clock
- 六才ろくさい6 years old
- 六番目ろくばんめ6th
- 六月ろくがつJune
- 六本ろっぽん6 (long cylindrical objects)
- 六百ろっぴゃく600
むっつmuttsu · kun'yomi · on its own
- 六つむっつ6 (pieces)
むいmui · kun'yomi
- 六日むいか6 days, 6th of the month
Also read リク, む, むつ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
Perhaps a shed. Originally using the similar-sounding word 廬 (“shed, cabin”) to represent the concept “six” (Liu Xinglong).
Source: Wiktionary, 六 (rev. 92691732), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Split it right down the middle! This radical carries the energy of division and the clarity of separation.”
Connections
Also read リク
1 kanji shares this on'yomiIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · liù
Same form: 六 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 六 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 六 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin liù most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.