Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

悲: grieve, sad

Also: deplore, regret

JLPT N312 strokesGrade 3Your ink: 白 Not met

心 carries the meaning · 非 gives the sound

12 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

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

Three readings, and the words that use each

ヒhi · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 悲劇ひげきtragedy
  • 悲鳴ひめいscream [n.]
  • 慈悲じひbenevolence
  • 悲惨なひさんなtragic
  • 悲観的なひかんてきなpessimistic
  • 悲観するひかんするbe pessimistic

かなしいkanashii · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 悲しいかなしいsad

かなしむkanashimu · kun'yomi

  • 悲しむかなしむmourn

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)非 (sound) + 心 heart; thought; emotion (meaning)

Source: Wiktionary, 悲 (rev. 92200479), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Non (非) + heart (心). Imagine a heart that is in a "negative" or "wronged" state, feeling the heavy burden of sorrow and grief.”
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
悲 grieve · 心
vs排 repudiate · 扌
悲 has 心 where 排 has 扌.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · bēi

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

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

Pinyin bēi 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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