Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

居: reside, to be

Also: exist, live with

JLPT N38 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met

尸 carries the meaning · 古 gives the sound

8 strokes

Four readings, and the words that use each

キョkyo · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 居住地きょじゅうちresidence, address
  • 住居じゅうきょhouse, residence
  • 皇居こうきょImperial Palace
  • 入居するにゅうきょするmove in
  • 転居するてんきょするmove, change residence
  • 同居するどうきょするlive together
  • 別居するべっきょするseparate (from spouse)

いるiru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 居るいるbe, exist

-い-i · kun'yomi

  • 居間いまliving room
  • 居眠りいねむりnap
  • 居留守いるすpretend to be out

おるoru · kun'yomi

  • 居るおるbe, exist [hum.]

Also read コ, with no example words in our sources. 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)尸 (meaning) + 古 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 居 (rev. 93466852), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Awning/corpse (尸) + old/ancient (古). Imagine a person "residing" in an "ancient" place for a long time—to live or be present in a location.”
From the 尸 corpse 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
古

Also built on old (古)

居 takes the 古 family's reading, コ (ko).

居 gives its sound to

The family reading is キョ (kyo). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read キョ

10 kanji share this on'yomi

Also read コ

27 kanji share this on'yomiAll 27

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
居 reside · 尸
vs固 harden · 囗
居 has 尸 where 固 has 囗.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · jū

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

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

Pinyin jū 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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