Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife

猫: cat

JLPT N311 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

⺨ carries the meaning · 苗 gives the sound

11 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

ビョウbyou · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 愛猫家あいびょうかcat lover

ねこneko · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 猫ねこcat
  • 子猫こねこkitten
  • 猫舌ねこじたdislike of very hot food or drink
  • 猫背ねこぜbent back; hunchback; stoop
  • 黒猫くろねこblack cat

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 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 (meaning) + 苗 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 猫 (rev. 92700004), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Beast radical + seedlings (苗) = imagine a small, nimble beast moving stealthily through the green seedlings of a field.”
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
苗

Also built on seedling (苗)

猫 takes the 苗 family's reading, ビョウ (byou).

Also read ビョウ

6 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
猫 cat · ⺨
vs描 sketch · 扌
猫 has ⺨ where 描 has 扌.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · māo

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

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

Pinyin māo 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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