Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Action & Movement

餓: starve, hungry

Also: thirst

JLPT N115 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

飠 carries the meaning · 我 gives the sound

15 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

ガga · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 飢餓きがstarvation; famine; hunger
  • 餓死がし(death from) starvation; starving to death

うえるueru · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 餓えうえhunger; starvation

Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

成り立ち

Where it comes from

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.”
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
我

Also built on ego (我)

餓 takes the 我 family's reading, ガ (ga).

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
餓 starve · 飠
vs義 righteousness · 羊
餓 has 飠 where 義 has 羊.
In ChineseSimplified 饿 · traditional, as in Japanese · è

Japan keeps the traditional form 餓; mainland China simplifies it to 饿.

Simplified
饿 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
餓 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin è 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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