漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
士: gentleman, scholar
Also: samurai, samurai radical (no. 33)
Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
One reading, and the words that use it
シshi · on'yomi · in compounds
- 士官しかんofficer
- 士農工商しのうこうしょうfeudal hierarchy
- 兵士へいしsoldier
- 騎士きしknight
- 武士ぶしwarrior, samurai
- 紳士しんしgentleman
- 名士めいしcelebrity, personage
- 同士どうしfellow, companion, comrade
- 力士りきしsumo wrestler
- 博士はくしPhD holder, learned man
- 弁護士べんごしlawyer, attorney
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 博士はかせexpert, learned man
Also read さむらい, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A war axe. Later, it took the meaning of "soldier" and eventually "officer, intellectual".
Source: Wiktionary, 士 (rev. 93756827), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for a man of status or a trained professional, used as a suffix for many occupations today (like "attorney" or "scholar").”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · shì
Same form: 士 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 士 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 士 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin shì most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.