Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

留: detain, fasten

Also: halt, stop

JLPT N310 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met

田 carries the meaning · 卯 is drawn in

10 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Six readings, and the words that use each

リュウryuu · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 留学するりゅうがくするstudy abroad
  • 留年するりゅうねんするrepeat the same grade (school)
  • 保留するほりゅうするput on hold
  • 留学生りゅうがくせいoverseas student
  • 停留所ていりゅうじょbus stop

ルru · on'yomi

  • 留守るすbeing away from home [n.]
  • 留守番るすばんhouse-watching
  • 留守番電話るすばんでんわanswering machine

とめるtomeru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 留めるとめるfasten [v.t.]

とまるtomaru · kun'yomi

  • 留まるとまるremain, come to a halt [v.i.]

とどめるtodomeru · kun'yomi

  • 留めるとどめるhold, detain [v.t.]

とどまるtodomaru · kun'yomi

  • 留まるとどまるstay (in the one place) [v.i.]

Also read るうぶる, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

成り立ち

Where it comes from

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The lifeblood of the village! Imagine a patchwork of green rice fields stretching across a fertile valley.”
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
留 detain · 田
vs昴 the Pleiades · 日
留 has 田 where 昴 has 日.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · liú

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

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

Pinyin liú 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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