漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
辺: environs, boundary
Also: border, vicinity
⻌ carries the meaning · 刀 gives the sound
Oracle bone · Shang Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ヘンhen · on'yomi · in compounds
- この辺このへんaround here
- 周辺しゅうへんcircumference
- 近辺きんぺんvicinity
あたりatari · kun'yomi · on its own
- 辺りあたりnearby
-べ-be · kun'yomi
- 窓辺まどべby the window
- 川辺かわべriverside
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 渡辺わたなべWatanabe (surname)
Also read ほとり, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)辵 walking; movement, as 辶 (meaning) + 臱 (sound)
Originally 臱. Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 辶 (“walking; movement”) + phonetic 臱.
Source: Wiktionary, 邊 (rev. 93659504), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“This swooping radical is the winding road you walk upon! It curves under the rest of the kanji like a path being carved through a landscape.”
Connections
The 刀 family reads トウ (tou); 辺 is read ヘン.
Also read ヘン
7 kanji share this on'yomiEasy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSimplified 边 · traditional 邊 · biān
Three different forms: Japanese 辺, simplified 边, traditional 邊.
- Simplified
- 边 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 邊 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin biān most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.