Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

毒: poison, virus

Also: venom, germ, harm, injury, spite

JLPT N28 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met

毋 carries the meaning · 龶 is drawn in

8 strokes

One reading, and the words that use it

ドクdoku · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 毒どくpoison
  • 毒ガスどくガスpoison gas
  • 毒薬どくやくpoison
  • 毒物どくぶつpoison
  • 中毒ちゅうどくpoisoning, addiction
  • 有毒なゆうどくなpoisonous, toxic
  • 気の毒なきのどくなunfortunate, a pity
  • 消毒するしょうどくするdisinfect, sterilize
  • 毒するどくするpoison[v.t.]

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)屮 vegetation (meaning) + 毐 (sound)

Chen, Jian (2020): Pictogram (象形) of a woman wearing a feathered ornament on her head – original form of 纛 (“feathered ornament”). Later borrowed for 毒 (“poison”).

Source: Wiktionary, 毒 (rev. 92691380), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Plant (生) + mother/not (母 variant). This refers to a "mother plant" that has grown wild or bitter, becoming "not" good to eat—a dangerous poison.”
From the 毋 not story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
龶

Also built on 龶

毋

Also built on not (毋)

All 3

Also read ドク

2 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
毒 poison · 毋
vs青 blue · 月
毒 has 毋 where 青 has 月.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · dú

Same form: 毒 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
毒 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
毒 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin dú 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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