漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
県: prefecture
JLPT N29 strokesGrade 3Your ink: 白 Not met
目 and 小 carry the meaning
9 strokes
Bronze · Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
One reading, and the words that use it
ケンken · on'yomi · in compounds
- 県けんprefecture
- 県庁けんちょうprefectural office
- 県民けんみんcitizens of a prefecture
- 県立けんりつprefecturally run
- 県道けんどうprefectural road
- 県知事けんちじprefectural governor
- 広島県ひろしまけんHiroshima prefecture
Also read かける, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)目 + 木 + 糸
To hang with the string 糸 by the head 目 (using an eye to represent a head) on a tree 木. Originally referred to 懸 (“to hang”); later jiajie (假借) for 縣 (“administrative division”).
Source: Wiktionary, 縣 (rev. 93449874), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Neck (inverted) + eye/small = in ancient times, related to governance and oversight of a specific geographic district.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side県 prefecture · 小
vs省 government ministry · 少In ChineseSimplified 县 · traditional 縣 · xiàn
Three different forms: Japanese 県, simplified 县, traditional 縣.
- Simplified
- 县 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 縣 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin xiàn 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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