漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife
魚: fish
𠂊, 田 and 灬 are drawn in
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Shang Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Three readings, and the words that use each
ギョgyo · on'yomi · in compounds
- 魚類ぎょるいfish (as class of animal)
- 魚介類ぎょかいるいmarine products, seafood
- 金魚きんぎょgoldfish
- 鮮魚せんぎょfresh fish
- 人魚にんぎょmermaid, merman
- 深海魚しんかいぎょdeep-sea fish
- 熱帯魚ねったいぎょtropical fish
うおuo · kun'yomi · on its own
- 魚市場うおいちばfish market
- 飛び魚とびうおflying fish
さかなsakana · kun'yomi
- 魚さかなfish [n.]
- 魚屋さかなやfish market, fish dealer
Special readingsThese words are read as a whole, not from the readings above.
- 雑魚ざこsmall fish, small fry
Also read -ざかな, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A fish. A conservative variant is 𤋳.
Source: Wiktionary, 魚 (rev. 93769916), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Watch the fish dart through the clear stream! The top stroke is the pointed head, the central box shows the shimmering scales of its body, and the dots at the bottom are the fins propelling it through the water.”
Connections
Also read ギョ
2 kanji share this on'yomiEasy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSimplified 鱼 · traditional, as in Japanese · yú
Japan keeps the traditional form 魚; mainland China simplifies it to 鱼.
- Simplified
- 鱼 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 魚 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin yú most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.