Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

愛: love, affection

Also: favourite

JLPT N313 strokesGrade 4Your ink: 白 Not met

冖, 心 and 夂 carry the meaning · ⺤ gives the sound

13 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

アイai · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 愛するあいするlove [v.t.]
  • 愛用するあいようするuse habitually
  • 愛あいlove [n.]
  • 愛情あいじょうlove [n.]
  • 愛妻あいさいbeloved wife
  • 愛人あいじんlover, mistress
  • 愛国心あいこくしんpatriotism
  • 恋愛れんあいlove affair
  • 母性愛ぼせいあいmaternal love

いとしいitoshii · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 愛しいいとしいlovely
  • 愛おしむいとおしむlove [v.t.]

Also read かなしい, めでる, おしむ, まな, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)旡 (sound) + 心 heart (meaning)

Originally written as 㤅. Phono-semantic compound (形聲): phonetic 旡 + semantic 心 (“heart”).

Source: Wiktionary, 愛 (rev. 93580139), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“A person (the top parts) shielding and wrapping their heart (心) around another; the profound feeling of care and affection.”
From the 心 heart story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
⺤

Also built on ⺤

冖

Also built on cover (冖)

All 21
心

Also built on heart (心)

All 45
夂

Also built on to follow (夂)

All 11

Also read アイ

4 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
愛 love · ⺤
vs憂 melancholy · 百
愛 has ⺤ where 憂 has 百.
In ChineseSimplified 爱 · traditional, as in Japanese · ài

Japan keeps the traditional form 愛; mainland China simplifies it to 爱.

Simplified
爱 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
愛 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin ài 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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