Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

渦: whirlpool, eddy

Also: vortex

JLPT N112 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

氵 carries the meaning · 咼 gives the sound

12 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

カka · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 渦中かちゅうvortex; maelstrom; whirlpool

うずuzu · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 渦うずwhirlpool; swirl; eddy
  • 渦巻きうずまき
  • 渦巻くうずまくto whirl; to eddy; to swirl

Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Imagine three raindrops falling—that's sanzui! Whenever you see these three dots on the left side of a kanji, think of water, liquids, or anything that flows.”
More in the 氵 water 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
咼

Also built on 咼

渦 takes the 咼 family's reading, カ (ka).

Also read カ

44 kanji share this on'yomiAll 44

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
渦 whirlpool · 氵
vs過 overdo · ⻌
渦 has 氵 where 過 has ⻌.
In ChineseSimplified 涡 · traditional, as in Japanese · wō

Japan keeps the traditional form 渦; mainland China simplifies it to 涡.

Simplified
涡 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
渦 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin wō 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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