Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Communication & Thought

比: compare, race

Also: ratio, Philippines

JLPT N24 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met
4 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Western Zhou
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Oracle bone, bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

ヒhi · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 比較的なひかくてきなcomparatively, relatively
  • 比率ひりつratio, proportion
  • 比喩ひゆsimile, metaphor
  • 比較するひかくするcompare
  • 比例するひれいするbe in proportion to
  • 対比するたいひするcontrast with

くらべるkuraberu · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 比べるくらべるcompare

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)匕 (sound) + 匕 (sound)

Chu Wan-li (1948): Phono-semantic compound (形聲): phonetic 匕 + phonetic 匕.

Source: Wiktionary, 比 (rev. 93475012), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The base kanji for "comparing" two objects or measuring one's performance against a standard or a ratio.”
From the 比 to compare story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
匕

Also built on spoon (匕)

All 9

比 gives its sound to

The family reading is ヒ (hi). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read ヒ

22 kanji share this on'yomiAll 22
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · bǐ

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

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

Pinyin bǐ 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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