漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
銅: copper
JLPT N214 strokesGrade 5Your ink: 白 Not met
金 carries the meaning · 同 gives the sound
14 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
ドウdou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 銅どうcopper
- 銅山どうざんcopper mine
- 銅貨どうかcopper coin
- 銅像どうぞうbronze statue
- 青銅せいどうbronze
- 銅板どうばんsheet copper
Also read あかがね, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.
成り立ち
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)金 metal (meaning) + 同 (sound)
Source: Wiktionary, 銅 (rev. 93410414), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Metal (金) + the same (同). A versatile metal that has been used for the "same" essential purposes as iron or bronze throughout the ages—representing copper.”
繋がり
Connections
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
同
Also built on same (同)
銅 takes the 同 family's reading, ドウ (dou).
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by side銅 copper · 同
vs銘 inscription · 名In ChineseSimplified 铜 · traditional, as in Japanese · tóng
Japan keeps the traditional form 銅; mainland China simplifies it to 铜.
- Simplified
- 铜 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 銅 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin tóng most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.
One click tells us. No sign-up.