Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Textiles, Plants & Food

英: England, English

Also: hero, outstanding, calyx

JLPT N48 strokesGrade 4Your ink: 白 Not met

艹 carries the meaning · 央 gives the sound

8 strokes

One reading, and the words that use it

エイei · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 英語えいごEnglish language
  • 英国えいこくEngland
  • 英国人えいこくじんEnglish person
  • 英会話えいかいわEnglish conversation
  • 英和辞典えいわじてんEnglish-Japanese dictionary
  • 英雄えいゆうhero

Also read はなぶさ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)艸 grass, as 艹 (meaning) + 央 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 英 (rev. 92201505), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Grass growing on top! Like a green crown upon the earth, this radical sits above kanji related to flowers, herbs, and vegetation.”
More in the 艹 grass story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
艹

Also built on grass (艹)

All 74
央

Also built on center (央)

英 takes the 央 family's reading, エイ (ei).

Also read エイ

11 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
英 England · 艹
vs映 reflect · 日
英 has 艹 where 映 has 日.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · yīng

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

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

Pinyin yīng 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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