Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

尾: tail, end

Also: counter for fish, lower slope of mountain

JLPT N17 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

尸 carries the meaning · 毛 is drawn in

7 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

ビbi · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 最後尾さいこうびend (e.g. of a line); tail end; rear
  • 末尾まつびend (e.g. of report, document, paragraph…
  • 交尾こうびcopulation (among animals); mating; treading

おo · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 尾おtail (of an animal); cauda
  • 尾根おね(mountain) ridge

Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.

  • 尻尾しっぽtail (of an animal)

Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Ideogrammic compound (會意)尸 person + 毛 hair; feather

Source: Wiktionary, 尾 (rev. 92724478), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Body (尸) + hair (毛). The specific part of an animal's "body" that is covered in "hair" and used for balance—the literal definition of a tail.”
From the 毛 hair story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
尸

Also built on corpse (尸)

All 18
毛

Also built on hair (毛)

All 2

Also read ビ

7 kanji share this on'yomi
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · wěi

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

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

Pinyin wěi 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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