Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People

舌: tongue, reed

Also: clapper

JLPT N16 strokesGrade 6Your ink: 白 Not met

千 and 口 are drawn in

6 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Shang
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

ゼツzetsu · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 舌癌ぜつがんtongue cancer
  • 舌戦ぜっせんwar of words
  • 毒舌などくぜつなverbally abusive, sharp-tongued
  • 饒舌なじょうぜつなgarrulous, talkative

したshita · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 舌したtongue
  • 猫舌ねこじたunable to take hot food
  • 二枚舌にまいじたdouble-dealing, double-tongued
  • 舌打ちするしたうちするsmack one's lips

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Pictogram (象形)

A snake's tongue emerging upwards from a mouth (口).

Source: Wiktionary, 舌 (rev. 93016316), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The base kanji for the tongue, used in biological contexts and in metaphors about speaking and flavor.”
From the 舌 tongue story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
千

Also built on thousand (千)

口

Also built on mouth (口)

All 108

舌 gives its sound to

The family reading is カツ (katsu). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read ゼツ

1 kanji shares this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
舌 tongue · 千 + 口
vs乱 riot · 舌 + 乙
舌 has 千 + 口 where 乱 has 舌 + 乙.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · shé

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

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

Pinyin shé 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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