漢字Kanji · in States & Attributes
長: long, leader
Also: superior, senior
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
チョウchou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 身長しんちょうheight (of body)
- 社長しゃちょうcompany president
- 市長しちょうmayor
- 会長かいちょうpresident (of a society)
- 長期ちょうきlong time period
- 長時間ちょうじかんlong-term, long-range
- 長男ちょうなんeldest son
- 長女ちょうじょeldest daughter
- 長所ちょうしょstrong point
- 成長するせいちょうするgrow
ながいnagai · kun'yomi · on its own
- 長いながいlong
Also read おさ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
An old man with long hair; an ancient variant still used is 镸 (e.g., ⾽ and 鬓).
Source: Wiktionary, 長 (rev. 93436916), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji itself, representing both the quality of being long and the position of a leader or "chief."”
Connections
長 gives its sound to
The family reading is チョウ (chou). Sound parts: KanjiVG.
In ChineseSimplified 长 · traditional, as in Japanese · zhǎng
Japan keeps the traditional form 長; mainland China simplifies it to 长.
- Simplified
- 长 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 長 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin zhǎng most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.