漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
憂: melancholy, grieve
Also: lament, be anxious, sad, unhappy
JLPT N115 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met
心 carries the meaning · 百, 冖 and 夂 are drawn in
15 strokes
Small seal · Qin Today
Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Four readings, and the words that use each
ユウyuu · on'yomi · in compounds
- 憂慮ゆうりょanxiety; concern; fear
- 憂鬱ゆううつdepression; melancholy; dejection
- 憂国ゆうこくpatriotic concern for the future of one's…
うれえるureeru · kun'yomi · on its own
- 憂えるうれえるto worry about; to be anxious about
うれいurei · kun'yomi
- 憂いうれいsorrow; grief; anguish
ういui · kun'yomi
- 憂さうさgloom; sadness; melancholy
Also read うき, with no example words in our sources. Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The ancient character once looked like a beating heart with its arteries. Today, 心 represents the very center of who we are—the place where our feelings bloom, our thoughts grow, and our spirit resides.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side憂 melancholy · 百
vs愛 love · ⺤In ChineseSimplified 忧 · traditional, as in Japanese · yōu
Japan keeps the traditional form 憂; mainland China simplifies it to 忧.
- Simplified
- 忧 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 憂 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin yōu 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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