Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

眠: sleep, die

Also: sleepy

JLPT N310 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

目 carries the meaning · 民 gives the sound

10 strokes

Three readings, and the words that use each

ミンmin · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 睡眠すいみんsleep [n.]
  • 睡眠時間すいみんじかんtime spent sleeping
  • 不眠症ふみんしょうinsomnia
  • 催眠術さいみんじゅつhypnotism
  • 冬眠するとうみんするhibernate

ねむるnemuru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 眠気ねむけdrowsiness
  • 眠るねむるsleep

ねむいnemui · kun'yomi

  • 眠いねむいbe sleepy

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)目 eye (meaning) + 民 (sound)

Close your eyes and go to sleep.

Source: Wiktionary, 眠 (rev. 92201180), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Eye + civilian/low (民) = when the eyes grow heavy and 'lower' themselves into a deep, peaceful sleep.”
From the 目 eye story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
目

Also built on eye (目)

All 24

Also read ミン

2 kanji share this on'yomi
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · mián

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

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

Pinyin mián 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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