漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
柔: tender, weakness
Also: gentleness, softness
JLPT N29 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met
矛 and 木 carry the meaning
9 strokes
Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Four readings, and the words that use each
ジュウjuu · on'yomi · in compounds
- 柔道じゅうどうjudo
- 柔軟なじゅうなんなflexible, lithe
- 柔軟じゅうなん
ニュウnyuu · on'yomi
- 柔和なにゅうわなgentle, mild, meek
やわらかyawaraka · kun'yomi · on its own
- 柔らかやわらかsoft; tender; pliant
やわらかいyawarakai · kun'yomi
- 柔らかいやわらかいsoft, tender, limp
Also read やわ, やわら, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Stand before a great, ancient tree and see 木! The vertical line is the sturdy trunk, the top strokes are branches reaching for the sunlight, and the bottom strokes are the roots gripping the earth.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
矛
Also built on halberd (矛)
Also read ジュウ
11 kanji share this on'yomiIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · róu
Same form: 柔 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 柔 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 柔 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin róu 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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