漢字Kanji · in States & Attributes
小: little, small
JLPT N53 strokesGrade 1Your ink: 白 Not met
3 strokes
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone, bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Four readings, and the words that use each
ショウshou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 小説しょうせつa novel
- 小学校しょうがっこうelementary school
- 最小さいしょうminimum
- 大小だいしょうsize
ちいさいchiisai · kun'yomi · on its own
- 小さいちいさいsmall
こ-ko- · kun'yomi
- 小麦こむぎwheat
- 小鳥ことりsmall bird
お-o- · kun'yomi
- 小川おがわsmall stream, brook
Also read さ-, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)八 to divide; to separate + 丨 small object
Two possible interpretations:.
Source: Wiktionary, 小 (rev. 93813458), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for small, used in everything from "elementary school" to describing the physical size of objects and animals.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · xiǎo
Same form: 小 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 小 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 小 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin xiǎo 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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