Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

腐: rot, decay

Also: sour

JLPT N114 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

肉 carries the meaning · 府 gives the sound

14 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

フfu · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 腐敗ふはい
  • 豆腐とうふtofu; bean curd; beancurd
  • 腐心ふしんtaking great pains (to do)
  • 陳腐ちんぷstale; hackneyed; clichéd
  • 腐食ふしょくrot; decay; erosion

くさるkusaru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 腐るくさるto rot; to go bad; to decay

Also read -くさる, くされる, くされ, くさらす, くさす, with no example words in our sources. Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)府 (sound) + 肉 flesh; body (meaning)

Source: Wiktionary, 腐 (rev. 92762201), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Meat (肉) + government office (府). Imagine meat left sitting in a "government office" for too long—it eventually begins to rot and decay!”
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · fǔ

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

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

Pinyin fǔ 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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