漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
朝: morning, dynasty
Also: regime, epoch, period, (North) Korea
- 𠦝(meaning)
- 月meat(meaning · sound)
𠦝 carries the meaning · 月 carries meaning and sound
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
チョウchou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 朝食ちょうしょくbreakfast
- 朝刊ちょうかんmorning newspaper
- 平安朝へいあんちょうHeian period
あさasa · kun'yomi · on its own
- 朝あさmorning
- 毎朝まいあさevery morning
- 朝日あさひmorning sun
- 朝御飯あさごはんbreakfast
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 今朝けさthis morning
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)
In the oracle bone script, it was an ideogrammic compound (會意): 2 or 4 屮 (“grass”) or even 木 (“tree”) + 日 (“sun”) + 月 (“moon”) – the sun rising above the ground while the waning moon is still in the sky – the morning.
Source: Wiktionary, 朝 (rev. 92199445), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The silver glow of the moon! Imagine the quiet beauty of a full moon rising over a dark horizon, marking the passage of time.”
Connections
Also built on 𠦝
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · cháo
Same form: 朝 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 朝 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 朝 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin cháo most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.