漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements
米: rice, USA
Also: metre
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ベイbei · on'yomi · in compounds
- 米価べいかrice price
- 米国べいこくAmerica, U.S.A.
- 米軍べいぐんthe US armed forces
- 欧米おうべいEurope and America, the West
- 北米ほくべいNorth America
- 南米なんべいSouth America
- 日米にちべいJapan-America
- 渡米するとべいするgo to U.S.A.
マイmai · on'yomi
- 玄米げんまいunpolished rice, unmilled rice
- 精米せいまいpolished rice
こめkome · kun'yomi · on its own
- 米こめuncooked rice
- 米屋こめやrice shop, rice dealer
Also read メエトル, よね, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
Rice kernels without husk. The character 粟, by contrast, refers to rice kernels with husk.
Source: Wiktionary, 米 (rev. 93544920), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for the essential food crop, also used as a phonetically-selected symbol for America (the "Rice Country").”
Connections
Also read マイ
5 kanji share this on'yomiEasy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · mǐ
Same form: 米 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 米 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 米 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin mǐ most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.