Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Animals & Wildlife

鯨: whale

JLPT N119 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

魚 carries the meaning · 京 gives the sound

19 strokes

Two readings, and the words that use each

ゲイgei · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 捕鯨ほげいwhaling; whale hunting; whale fishing
  • 鯨肉げいにくwhale meat

くじらkujira · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 鯨くじらwhale (Cetacea spp.)

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

Learn it 4 steps
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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Phono-semantic compound (形聲)魚 fish (meaning) + 京 (sound)

Source: Wiktionary, 鯨 (rev. 92202242), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Fish radical + capital/great (京) = the 'great fish' of the capital of the ocean; the massive whale that reigns over the deep.”
From the 魚 fish story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
魚

Also built on fish (魚)

All 5
京

Also built on capital (京)

鯨 takes the 京 family's reading, ケイ (kei).

Also read ゲイ

4 kanji share this on'yomi

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
鯨 whale · 京
vs鯛 sea bream · 周
鯨 has 京 where 鯛 has 周.
In ChineseSimplified 鲸 · traditional, as in Japanese · jīng

Japan keeps the traditional form 鯨; mainland China simplifies it to 鲸.

Simplified
鲸 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
鯨 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin jīng 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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