Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

汽: vapor, steam

JLPT N17 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met

氵 carries the meaning · 气 gives the sound

7 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

One reading, and the words that use it

キki · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 汽車きしゃtrain [n.]
  • 汽船きせんsteamship
  • 汽笛きてきsteam whistle

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)水 water, as 氵 (meaning) + 气 (sound)

Also ideogrammic compound 氵 (water) and 气 (air), representing water in air form.

Source: Wiktionary, 汽 (rev. 92302948), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Water (氵) + steam (气). The physical "water" that has been transformed into rising "vapor" through the application of intense heat.”
From the 气 steam story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
氵

Also built on water (氵)

All 125
气

Also built on steam (气)

All 1

汽 takes the 气 family's reading, キ (ki).

Also read キ

55 kanji share this on'yomiAll 55
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · qì

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

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

Pinyin qì 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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