字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE
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.
部首Radical · in Tools & Weapons
車 car, wheel, vehicle (side form)
くるまへん kurumahen · side form of 車 くるま kuruma
7 strokesRadical of 16 kanjiPart of 20
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
Originally a carriage seen from above. In the oracle bone script, there were large wheels on both sides and a central shaft at the front.
Source: Wiktionary, 車 (rev. 94513764), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Keep the wheels turning! This radical represents the power of transport, the constant rotation of wheels, and the incredible invention of vehicles throughout history. When it sits on the left, think of chariots, modern cars, rolling motions, and the heavy transport of goods and people. It is the radical of the skilled driver, the careful mechanic, and the tireless traveler on the long road.”
Where it sits in a kanji
Indicates vehicles (carts, cars, wagons), wheels and rotation, transport and shipping, physical movement over land, and the mechanisms that involve rolling.
What it grows into
- 軍armyグン · いくさ
車 + 勹
Semantic 車 (“chariot”) + phonetic 勹. The phonetic component here is not 勹, but the original form of 螾, which also acts as the phonetic component of 旬, 勻 and 云.
Ideogrammic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 軽lightlyケイ · かるい
車 + 巠sound
The word originally referred to a kind of light carriage.
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, 輕, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 転revolveテン · ころがる
車 + 專sound
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, 轉, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with 車 as its radical
All 16 kanji