漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
山: mountain
JLPT N53 strokesGrade 1Your ink: 白 Not met
3 strokes
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Shang Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
サンsan · on'yomi · in compounds
- 富士山ふじさんMt Fuji
- 山脈さんみゃくmountain range
- 火山かざんvolcano
- 登山とざんmountain-climbing
やまyama · kun'yomi · on its own
- 山やまmountain, pile, climax
- 岩山いわやまrocky mountain
- 山火事やまかじbushfire
Also read セン, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
Three mountain peaks. In the Oracle Bone Script, they were represented by triangles rather than vertical strokes.
Source: Wiktionary, 山 (rev. 93648109), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Stand tall and look at the horizon! Three peaks reach for the clouds in perfect harmony.”
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 · shān
Same form: 山 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 山 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 山 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin shān 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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