Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

弊: abuse, evil

Also: vice, breakage

JLPT N115 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

廾 carries the meaning · 敝 gives the sound

15 strokes

One reading, and the words that use it

ヘイhei · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 弊害へいがい
  • 疲弊ひへいexhaustion; fatigue
  • 弊社へいしゃour company; our firm
  • 悪弊あくへいcorrupt practice; evil practice; bad custom
  • 病弊びょうへいevil influence; ill effect

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)敝 destroy, tatters (sound) + 廾 both hands (meaning)

Emphatic form of 敝 – destroying something with both hands.

Source: Wiktionary, 弊 (rev. 93443944), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Hands (廾) + cloth/broken. Refers to "hands" handling tattered or broken cloth, eventually evolving to mean something harmful, bad, or a humble way to refer to oneself.”
From the 廾 folded hands story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
敝

Also built on 敝

弊 takes the 敝 family's reading, ヘイ (hei).

廾

Also built on folded hands (廾)

All 11

Also read ヘイ

15 kanji share this on'yomiAll 15

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
弊 abuse · 廾
vs幣 cash · 巾
弊 has 廾 where 幣 has 巾.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · bì

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

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

Pinyin bì 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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