漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement
食: eat, food
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Four readings, and the words that use each
ショクshoku · on'yomi · in compounds
- 食堂しょくどうdining hall
- 食欲しょくよくappetite (for food)
- 食後しょくごafter a meal
- 夕食ゆうしょくdinner
- 朝食ちょうしょくbreakfast
- 和食わしょくJapanese-style meal
- 食事するしょくじするhave a meal
ジキjiki · on'yomi
- 断食するだんじきするfast [v.i.]
くうkuu · kun'yomi · on its own
- 食い物くいものfood
たべるtaberu · kun'yomi
- 食べるたべるeat
- 食べ物たべものfood
Also read くらう, はむ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Ideogrammic compound (會意)亼 mouth + 皀 a bowl of rice on a stand
In the modern form, the bowl of rice has corrupted into the similar but unrelated 良 or 艮. The variant form 𠊊 preserves the original composition.
Source: Wiktionary, 食 (rev. 93626765), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“A feast under the lid! Imagine lifting the cover of a steaming pot to find a meal prepared with care.”
Connections
Also read ショク
11 kanji share this on'yomiAlso read ジキ
1 kanji shares this on'yomiIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · shí
Same form: 食 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 食 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 食 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin shí most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.