漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
老: old man, old age
Also: grow old
JLPT N36 strokesGrade 4Your ink: 白 Not met
耂 and 匕 are drawn in
6 strokes
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone, bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ロウrou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 老人ろうじんthe aged
- 老後ろうごold age
- 老眼ろうがんfarsightedness due to old age
- 老化するろうかするgrow old, become senile
おいるoiru · kun'yomi · on its own
- 老いるおいるgrow old [v.i.]
ふけるfukeru · kun'yomi
- 老けるふけるgrow old [v.i.]
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)人 man + 毛 hair + 匕 cane
A man with long hair (an old man), leaning on a cane.
Source: Wiktionary, 老 (rev. 93751489), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Respect your elders! This radical is the symbol of wisdom, long life, and the authority that comes with age.”
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老 old man · 匕
vs孝 filial piety · 子In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · lǎo
Same form: 老 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 老 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 老 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin lǎo 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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