字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE存下73 合4059 賓組
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.
部首Radical · in Human Body & People
耳 ear
みみ mimi · as a side part みみへん mimihen
6 strokesRadical of 6 kanjiPart of 10
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
An ear.
Source: Wiktionary, 耳 (rev. 93606014), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Listen closely to the whispers of the world! This character traces the delicate shape of the human ear. It represents the sense of hearing and the deep act of listening—not just to sounds, but to the wisdom that the wind and others bring to us.”
Where it sits in a kanji
Relates to sound, the act of hearing, obedience (listening to orders), or things that have ear-like handles or projections
What it grows into
- 聴listenチョウ · きく
耳 + 口
Originally 𦔻, hence ideogrammic compound (會意): 耳 (“ear”) + 口 (“mouth(s)”) – to listen.
Ideogrammic compound · Wiktionary, 聽, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 職postショク
耳 + 戠sound
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 聖holyセイ · ひじり
耳 + 呈sound
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with 耳 as its radical
All 6 kanji