Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

然: sort of thing, so

Also: if so, in that case, well

JLPT N312 strokesGrade 4Your ink: 白 Not met

灬 carries the meaning · 月 and 犬 are drawn in

12 strokes

One reading, and the words that use it

ゼンzen · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 全然ぜんぜんnot at all
  • 偶然ぐうぜんby chance
  • 突然とつぜんsuddenly
  • 当然とうぜんas a matter of course
  • 自然しぜんnature
  • 平然とへいぜんとcalmly

Also read ネン, しか, しかり, しかし, さ, with no example words in our sources. 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)肰 (sound) + 火 fire (meaning)

To burn. The derivative 燃 preserves the original word.

Source: Wiktionary, 然 (rev. 93576312), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“These four dots are flames under a cooking pot! When you see 灬 at the bottom of a kanji, imagine a fire heating something from below.”
More in the 灬 fire story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
月

Also built on meat (月)

All 63
犬

Also built on dog (犬)

All 7
灬

Also built on fire (灬)

All 19

然 gives its sound to

The family reading is ネン (nen). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read ゼン

10 kanji share this on'yomi

Also read ネン

8 kanji share this on'yomi
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · rán

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

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

Pinyin rán 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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