Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Structures & Home

国: country

JLPT N58 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met

囗 carries the meaning · 玉 gives the sound

8 strokes
  • Bronze · Western Zhou
  • Today

Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

コクkoku · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 国際こくさいinternational
  • 国立こくりつnationally owned (institution)
  • 国会こっかいparliament
  • 四国しこくShikoku
  • 韓国かんこくSouth Korea
  • 中国ちゅうごくChina
  • 帝国主義ていこくしゅぎimperialism
  • 帰国するきこくするreturn to one's own country
  • 入国するにゅうこくするenter a country

くにkuni · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 国くにcountry
  • 国々くにぐにcountries
  • 島国しまぐにisland country

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)囗 closure (meaning) + 或 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 國 (rev. 93629901), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Enclosure (囗) + gem/altar (玉 simplified) = a precious land with its own borders and a central, protected treasure.”
From the 囗 enclosure story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
囗

Also built on enclosure (囗)

All 11
玉

Also built on jewelry (玉)

All 3

Also read コク

10 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
国 country · 囗
vs宝 treasure · 宀
国 has 囗 where 宝 has 宀.
In ChineseSimplified, as in Japanese · traditional 國 · guó

Japan uses the same simplified form as mainland China, 国. Taiwan and Hong Kong write 國.

Simplified
国 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
國 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin guó 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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