Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

風: wind, air

Also: style, manner

JLPT N49 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met

虫 carries the meaning · 几 gives the sound

9 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Western Zhou
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Oracle bone, bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Four readings, and the words that use each

フウfuu · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 風習ふうしゅうcustom
  • 風景ふうけいscenery
  • 台風たいふうtyphoon
  • 扇風機せんぷうきelectric fan

フfu · on'yomi

  • 風呂ふろbath

かぜkaze · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 風かぜwind
  • 北風きたかぜnorth wind

かざ-kaza- · kun'yomi

  • 風向きかざむきwind's direction

Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.

  • 風邪かぜcold (illness)

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Other

Jiajie (假借) of 鳳 (“fenghuang”) borrowed for sound to represent 風 (“wind”), sometimes with 凡 added as a phonetic.

Source: Wiktionary, 風 (rev. 92747648), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Imagine a powerful gust of wind blowing through a valley! The outer frame represents the forceful movement of the air.”
More in the 風 wind story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
几

Also built on table (几)

All 9
虫

Also built on insect (虫)

All 15

Also read フウ

7 kanji share this on'yomi

Also read フ

28 kanji share this on'yomiAll 28

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
風 wind · 几
vs独 single · ⺨
風 has 几 where 独 has ⺨.
In ChineseSimplified 风 · traditional, as in Japanese · fēng

Japan keeps the traditional form 風; mainland China simplifies it to 风.

Simplified
风 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
風 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin fēng most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

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