漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
災: disaster, calamity
Also: woe, curse, evil
JLPT N17 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met
- 巛(sound)
- 火fire(meaning)
火 carries the meaning · 巛 gives the sound
7 strokes
Two readings, and the words that use each
サイsai · on'yomi · in compounds
- 災難さいなんmishap, calamity, misfortune
- 災害さいがいcalamity, disaster
- 震災しんさいearthquake (disaster)
- 火災かさいfire (disaster)
- 人災じんさいman-made disaster
- 天災てんさいnatural disaster
- 戦災せんさいwar damage
- 被災地ひさいちdisaster-struck area
わざわいwazawai · kun'yomi · on its own
- 災いわざわいcalamity, catastrophe, evil
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Look at 火 and see the campfire! The central stroke is the main flame, and the side strokes are sparks dancing in the wind.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
巛
Also built on 巛
In ChineseSimplified 灾 · traditional, as in Japanese · zāi
Japan keeps the traditional form 災; mainland China simplifies it to 灾.
- Simplified
- 灾 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 災 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin zāi 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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