Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

検: examination, investigate

JLPT N112 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met

木 carries the meaning · 㑒 gives the sound

12 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

One reading, and the words that use it

ケンken · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 検診けんしんmedical examination
  • 検事けんじpublic prosecutor
  • 検察けんさつexamination, prosecutor
  • 検定試験けんていしけんlicensing examination
  • 検索するけんさくするlook up in reference
  • 検出するけんしゅつするdetect
  • 検証するけんしょうするinspect
  • 検査するけんさするexamine
  • 検討するけんとうするconsider, examine, investigate
  • 検閲するけんえつするcensor
  • 探検するたんけんするexplore, go on an expedition
  • 点検するてんけんするexamine, check

Also read しらべる, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)木 (meaning) + 僉 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 檢 (rev. 91831218), CC BY-SA 4.0

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.”
More in the 木 tree story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
木

Also built on tree (木)

All 124
㑒

Also built on 㑒

Also read ケン

39 kanji share this on'yomiAll 39

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
検 examination · 木
vs倹 frugal · 亻
検 has 木 where 倹 has 亻.
In ChineseSimplified 检 · traditional 檢 · jiǎn

Three different forms: Japanese 検, simplified 检, traditional 檢.

Simplified
检 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
檢 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin jiǎn 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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