Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Textiles, Plants & Food

衣: garment, clothes

Also: dressing

JLPT N26 strokesGrade 4Your ink: 白 Not met
6 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Western Zhou
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

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

Two readings, and the words that use each

イi · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 衣類いるいclothes, clothing, garments
  • 衣服いふくclothes
  • 衣食住いしょくじゅうfood, clothing and shelter
  • 衣料品いりょうひんclothing
  • 白衣はくい(doctor/nurse's) white gown

ころもkoromo · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 衣ころもclothes
  • 衣替えころもがえseasonal change of clothing

Also read エ, きぬ, -ぎ, 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

Pictogram (象形)

Pictogram (象形) Outline of the chest, upper clothing.

Source: Wiktionary, 衣 (rev. 92775687), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The base kanji for any item of clothing or the protective "coating" and outer layer of an object.”
From the 衣 clothes story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
亠

Also built on lid (亠)

All 24

衣 gives its sound to

The family reading is イ (i). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read イ

31 kanji share this on'yomiAll 31

Also read エ

13 kanji share this on'yomiAll 13
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · yī

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

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

Pinyin yī 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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