漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
近: near, early
Also: akin, tantamount
⻌ carries the meaning · 斤 gives the sound
Small seal · Qin Today
Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
キンkin · on'yomi · in compounds
- 近視きんしshortsightedness
- 近所きんじょneighborhood
- 最近さいきんrecently
- 近代きんだいmodern
- 接近するせっきんするapproach
ちかいchikai · kun'yomi · on its own
- 近くちかくnearby [n.]
- 近いちかいnearby [adj.]
- 近付くちかづくcome near, approach
- 近道ちかみちshortcut
- 身近なみぢかなclose, familiar
Also read コン, 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 walk, as 辶 (meaning) + 斤 (sound)
To be near something.
Source: Wiktionary, 近 (rev. 92769146), 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
近 takes the 斤 family's reading, キン (kin).
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · jìn
Same form: 近 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 近 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 近 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin jìn most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.