字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE甲1440 合31080
Oracle bone, bronze and small seal: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
部首Radical · in Action & Movement
止 stop, halt
とめる / し tomeru / shi
4 strokesRadical of 6 kanjiPart of 11
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
A footprint pointing up, originally meaning "foot"; stylized as 龰. The derivative 趾 refers to the original meaning.
Source: Wiktionary, 止 (rev. 93297076), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Stop right there! See the foot planted firmly on the earth. The character shows the toes pointing upward, indicating that the person has ceased their journey and is now standing perfectly still. It represents boundaries, the end of a path, and the moment of pausing.”
Where it sits in a kanji
Indicates stopping, staying, ceasing motion, or reaching a boundary or conclusion
What it grows into
- 歩walkホ · あるく
止 + 止
Ideogrammic compound (會意): 止 (“foot”) + 止 (“foot”) reversed – one foot in front of the other. Unrelated to 少.
Ideogrammic compound · Wiktionary, 步, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 武warriorブ · たけ
戈 + 止
Army going on an expedition. In the character 武, the 戈 component is written above the 止 component.
Ideogrammic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 正correctセイ · ただしい
丁sound + 止
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with 止 as its radical
All 6 kanji