Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement

論: argument, discourse

JLPT N315 strokesGrade 6Your ink: 白 Not met

言 carries the meaning · 侖 gives the sound

15 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

One reading, and the words that use it

ロンron · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 論じるろんじるargue, discuss
  • 論文ろんぶんthesis
  • 論拠ろんきょgrounds of an argument
  • 論理的なろんりてきなlogical
  • 論外なろんがいなout of the question
  • 議論するぎろんするargue, discuss
  • 理論りろんtheory
  • 結論けつろんconclusion
  • 世論よろん/せろんpublic opinion
  • 評論ひょうろんcritique
  • 卒論そつろんB.A. thesis
  • 勿論もちろんof course, needless to say

Also read あげつらう, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

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Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)言 say (meaning) + 侖 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 論 (rev. 93761913), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Speech radical + organize/edit (侖) = words that have been carefully edited and organized into a sharp, logical argument or theory.”
From the 言 speech story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
言

Also built on speech (言)

All 72
侖

Also built on 侖

The 侖 family reads リン (rin); 論 is read ロン.

Also read ロン

1 kanji shares this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
論 argument · 言
vs輪 wheel · 車
論 has 言 where 輪 has 車.
In ChineseSimplified 论 · traditional, as in Japanese · lùn

Japan keeps the traditional form 論; mainland China simplifies it to 论.

Simplified
论 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
論 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin lùn 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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