Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

島: island

JLPT N210 strokesGrade 3Your ink: 白 Not met

山 carries the meaning · 鳥 gives the sound

10 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

トウtou · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 島民とうみんislander
  • 日本列島にほんれっとうJapanese archipelago
  • 半島はんとうpeninsula
  • 無人島むじんとうdeserted island

しまshima · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 島しまisland
  • 島国しまぐにisland country
  • 宝島たからじまtreasure island
  • 島々しまじまislands

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)鳥 (sound) + 山 mountain (meaning)

Source: Wiktionary, 島 (rev. 93519206), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Mountain + bird (鳥 simplified) = a mountain rising out of the sea where weary birds go to rest.”
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
In ChineseSimplified 岛 · traditional, as in Japanese · dǎo

Japan keeps the traditional form 島; mainland China simplifies it to 岛.

Simplified
岛 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
島 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin dǎo 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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