漢字Kanji · in States & Attributes
赤: red
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Five readings, and the words that use each
セキseki · on'yomi · in compounds
- 赤外線せきがいせんinfrared rays
- 赤十字せきじゅうじRed Cross
- 赤道せきどうequator
- 赤面するせきめんするblush
シャクshaku · on'yomi
- 赤銅色しゃくどういろtanned color
あかaka · kun'yomi · on its own
- 赤ちゃんあかちゃんbaby
- 赤ん坊あかんぼうbaby
- 赤字あかじdeficit
あかいakai · kun'yomi
- 赤いあかいred
あからめるakarameru · kun'yomi
- 赤らめるあからめるredden
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 真っ赤なまっかなdeep red
Also read あか-, あからむ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)大 person, big + 火 fire
The color of fire (a person by a fire). The original version is 𤆍.
Source: Wiktionary, 赤 (rev. 93934987), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji itself, showing the person over the fire representing the color red.”
Connections
Also read シャク
10 kanji share this on'yomiIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · chì
Same form: 赤 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 赤 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 赤 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin chì most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.