Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

哲: philosophy, clear

JLPT N110 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

口 carries the meaning · 折 gives the sound

10 strokes

One reading, and the words that use it

テツtetsu · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 哲学てつがくphilosophy
  • 哲理てつりphilosophic principles
  • 哲学者てつがくしゃphilosopher
  • 哲学的なてつがくてきなphilosophical
  • 変哲へんてつsomething unusual; something odd
  • 哲人てつじんwise man; philosopher; sage

Also read さとい, あきらか, 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
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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Open your mouth wide and what do you see? A simple, sturdy square!”
More in the 口 mouth story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
折

Also built on fold (折)

The 折 family reads セイ (sei); 哲 is read テツ.

口

Also built on mouth (口)

All 108

Also read テツ

4 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
哲 philosophy · 口
vs逝 departed · ⻌
哲 has 口 where 逝 has ⻌.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · zhé

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

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

Pinyin zhé 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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