漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
棟: ridgepole, ridge
JLPT N112 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met
木 carries the meaning · 東 gives the sound
12 strokes
Two readings, and the words that use each
トウtou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 病棟びょうとう(hospital) ward
- 上棟じょうとうraising the ridgepole
むねmune · kun'yomi · on its own
- 棟むねridge (of roof)
- 別棟べつむねseparate building; outbuilding; outhouse
Also read むな-, 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
“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
東
Also built on east (東)
棟 takes the 東 family's reading, トウ (tou).
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side棟 ridgepole · 木
vs凍 frozen · 冫In ChineseSimplified 栋 · traditional, as in Japanese · dòng
Japan keeps the traditional form 棟; mainland China simplifies it to 栋.
- Simplified
- 栋 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 棟 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin dòng 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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