漢字Kanji · in Textiles, Plants & Food
簡: simplicity, brevity
JLPT N218 strokesGrade 6Your ink: 白 Not met
竹 carries the meaning · 間 gives the sound
18 strokes
Small seal · Qin Today
Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
One reading, and the words that use it
カンkan · on'yomi · in compounds
- 簡単なかんたんなsimple
- 簡単過ぎるかんたんすぎるtoo simple
- 簡素なかんそなplain
- 簡略なかんりゃくなsimple
- 簡単かんたん
- 書簡しょかんletter; note; epistle
- 簡素かんそ
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 簡潔な（かんけつな）brief
Also read ケン, えらぶ, ふだ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Under the bamboo canopy! This radical brings the practicality and craftsmanship of bamboo to the head of many kanji.”
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簡 simplicity · 竹 + 間
vs闇 get dark · 門 + 音In ChineseSimplified 简 · traditional, as in Japanese · jiǎn
Japan keeps the traditional form 簡; mainland China simplifies it to 简.
- Simplified
- 简 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 簡 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin jiǎn 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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