漢字Kanji · in Tools & Weapons
玉: jewel, ball
王 and 丶 are drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Spring and Autumn Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ギョクgyoku · on'yomi · in compounds
- 玉座ぎょくざthrone
- 玉石混淆ぎょくせきこんこうmixture of wheat and chaff
たまtama · kun'yomi · on its own
- 玉たまball, jewel
- 玉子たまごegg
- 玉葱たまねぎonion
- 水玉模様みずたまもようpolka dots
-だま-dama · kun'yomi
- 目玉めだまeyeball
- 鉄砲玉てっぽうだまbullet
- 十円玉じゅうえんだま10 yen coin
Also read たま-, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
The character's shape was historically very similar to 王; a dot was introduced to differentiate the two.
Source: Wiktionary, 玉 (rev. 94584484), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for a gemstone or any round object, used for everything from "pearls" to the balls used in sports and games.”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · yù
Same form: 玉 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 玉 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 玉 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin yù most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.