漢字Kanji · in Tools & Weapons
別: separate, branch off
Also: diverge, fork, another, extra, specially
刂 carries the meaning · 口 and 勹 are 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.
Two readings, and the words that use each
ベツbetsu · on'yomi · in compounds
- 特別なとくべつなspecial
- 別なべつなdifferent, another
- 別々にべつべつにseparately
- 個別にこべつにindividually
- 別離べつりparting
- 別荘べっそうsummer home
- 別世界べっせかいanother world
- 差別するさべつするdiscriminate
- 区別するくべつするdifferentiate
- 別居するべっきょするseparate (i.e. a married couple)
わかれるwakareru · kun'yomi · on its own
- 別れるわかれるbe divided, part from
Also read わける, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)冎 bone + 刀 knife, as 刂
Ideogrammic compound (會意): 冎 (“bone”) + 刂 (“knife”), hence 𠛰 – to cut up bone and flesh. Later, the character was stylized as 別.
Source: Wiktionary, 別 (rev. 94590781), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Slice through it! This "standing knife" radical is all about precision and force.”
Connections
Also read ベツ
1 kanji shares this on'yomiEasy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSimplified 别 · traditional, as in Japanese · bié
Japan keeps the traditional form 別; mainland China simplifies it to 别.
- Simplified
- 别 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 別 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin bié most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.