漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife
難: difficult, impossible
Also: trouble, accident, defect
隹 carries the meaning · 艹, 口 and 夫 are drawn in
Three readings, and the words that use each
ナンnan · on'yomi · in compounds
- 難問なんもんdifficult question
- 難民なんみんrefugees
- 災難さいなんmisfortune
- 就職難しゅうしょくなんbad job market
- 難解ななんかいなdifficult
- 困難なこんなんなdifficult
- 避難するひなんするtake refuge
- 非難するひなんするblame
-がたい-gatai · kun'yomi · on its own
- 忘れ難いわすれがたいdifficult to forget
むずかしいmuzukashii · kun'yomi
- 難しいむずかしいdifficult
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 有り難うありがとうThank you
Also read かたい, むづかしい, むつかしい, -にくい, 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)暵 (sound) + 隹 bird (meaning)
A type of bird. Phonetically borrowed for other senses.
Source: Wiktionary, 難 (rev. 92922915), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Yellow/distress (廿) + bird (隹). Originally depicted a bird caught in a net or in distress, signifying a "difficult" situation that is hard to escape.”
Connections
Also built on husband (夫)
Also read ナン
5 kanji share this on'yomiEasy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSimplified 难 · traditional, as in Japanese · nán
Japan keeps the traditional form 難; mainland China simplifies it to 难.
- Simplified
- 难 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 難 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin nán most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.