Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife

蛍: lightning-bug, firefly

JLPT N111 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

虫 carries the meaning · 𤇾 gives the sound

11 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

ケイkei · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 蛍光灯けいこうとう
  • 蛍光けいこうfluorescence

ほたるhotaru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 蛍ほたるfirefly (Luciola cruciata); lightning bug

Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“A wriggly creature moves through the grass! The top part is the head, and the body curves below.”
More in the 虫 insect story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
𤇾

Also built on 𤇾

The 𤇾 family reads エイ (ei); 蛍 is read ケイ.

虫

Also built on insect (虫)

All 15

Also read ケイ

41 kanji share this on'yomiAll 41

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
蛍 lightning-bug · 𤇾
vs蛇 snake · 它
蛍 has 𤇾 where 蛇 has 它.
In ChineseSimplified 萤 · traditional 螢 · yíng

Three different forms: Japanese 蛍, simplified 萤, traditional 螢.

Simplified
萤 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
螢 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin yíng 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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