Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife

独: single, alone

Also: spontaneously, Germany

JLPT N19 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met

⺨ carries the meaning · 虫 gives the sound

9 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

ドクdoku · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 独身どくしんsingle, unmarried
  • 独学どくがくself-education
  • 独文どくぶんGerman literature
  • 独裁政治どくさいせいじdictatorship, despotism
  • 独善的などくぜんてきなself-righteous
  • 単独たんどくsole, single, solo
  • 孤独なこどくなalone, isolate, lonely
  • 独立するどくりつするgain independence
  • 独占するどくせんするmonopolize
  • 独走するどくそうするrun alone, do as one likes

ひとりhitori · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 独りひとりalone, unmarried
  • 独り者ひとりものsingle person

Also read トク, 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)犬, as 犭 (meaning) + 蜀 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 獨 (rev. 92691785), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Beast radical + worm/insect (蜀) = can represent a single, lone animal hunting in the wild, signifying the state of being alone.”
From the 犭 beast story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
⺨

Also built on beast (⺨)

All 13
虫

Also built on insect (虫)

All 15

Also read ドク

2 kanji share this on'yomi

Also read トク

8 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
独 single · ⺨
vs風 wind · 几
独 has ⺨ where 風 has 几.
In ChineseSimplified, as in Japanese · traditional 獨 · dú

Japan uses the same simplified form as mainland China, 独. Taiwan and Hong Kong write 獨.

Simplified
独 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
獨 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin dú 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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