漢字Kanji · in Textiles, Plants & Food
豆: beans, pea
Also: midget
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.
Three readings, and the words that use each
トウtou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 豆腐とうふtofu, bean-curd
- 豆乳とうにゅうsoy milk
- 納豆なっとうnatto (fermented soybeans)
ズzu · on'yomi
- 大豆だいずsoy bean
まめmame · kun'yomi · on its own
- 豆まめbeans, peas, miniature, tiny
- 豆電球まめでんきゅうminiature light bulb
- 枝豆えだまめgreen soybeans
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 小豆あずきadzuki beans
Also read まめ-, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
Some kind of container. Borrowed phonetically for the plant name.
Source: Wiktionary, 豆 (rev. 93428248), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for a small, edible seed and a reference to the archaic ritual vessel shape that once held it.”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · dòu
Same form: 豆 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 豆 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 豆 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin dòu most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.