Jisho

×

元

4 strokes
Radical:
legs 儿
Parts:
二 儿 元
beginning, former time, origin
Kun:
もと
On:
ゲン、 ガン
Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 2
JLPT level N4
192 of 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Speed

Stroke order

On reading compounds

  • 元 【ゲン】 unknown (e.g. in an equation), element (of a set), yuan (monetary unit of China), New Taiwan dollar, Yuan dynasty (of China; 1271-1368), Yüan dynasty, Mongol dynasty
  • 原価 【ゲンカ】 cost price
  • 中元 【チュウゲン】 15th day of the 7th lunar month, (last day of) Bon lantern festival, mid-year gift, summer gift, Bon Festival gifts
  • 抗原 【コウゲン】 antigen
  • 元祖 【ガンソ】 originator, pioneer, inventor, founder, progenitor, primogenitor, founder of a family line
  • 元日 【ガンジツ】 New Year's Day

Kun reading compounds

  • 元 【もと】 origin, source, beginning, basis, base, foundation, root, cause, (raw) material, ingredient, base, mix (e.g. for a cake), (soup) stock, (one's) side, capital, principal, cost price, root (of a plant), (tree) trunk, part (of a brush, chopsticks, etc.) one holds (with the hand), first three lines of a waka, counter for plants or trees, counter for falcons (in falconry)
  • 元 【もと】 former, ex-, past, one-time, earlier times, the past, previous state, formerly, previously, originally, before
  • 家元 【いえもと】 head of a school (of music, dance), head family of a school
  • 胸元 【むなもと】 breast, chest, pit of the stomach, solar plexus, epigastrium

Readings

Japanese names:
ちか、 はじめ、 はる、 ゆき、 よし
Mandarin Chinese (pinyin):
yuan2
Korean:
weon

Spanish

  • comienzo
  • principio
  • origen
  • jefe

Portuguese

  • começo
  • tempo anterior
  • origem

French

  • commencement
  • origine
  • ancien temps
68 A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese (Florence Sakade)
117 A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese 3rd edition (Henshall, Seeley and De Groot)
106 A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters (Kenneth G. Henshall)
328 A New Dictionary of Kanji Usage
275 Classic Nelson (Andrew Nelson)
106 Essential Kanji (P.G. O’Neill)
121 Japanese Kanji Flashcards (Max Hodges and Tomoko Okazaki)
60 Japanese Names (P.G. O’Neill)
2.10 Japanese for Busy People
137 Kanji and Kana (Spahn and Hadamitzky)
137 Kanji and Kana, 2nd Edition (Spahn and Hadamitzky)
245 Kanji in Context (Nishiguchi and Kono)
141 Kodansha Compact Kanji Guide
2428 Kodansha Kanji Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
1226 Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
1690 Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary, 2nd Edition (Jack Halpern)
59 Les Kanjis dans la tete (Yves Maniette)
1340 Morohashi
1929 New Japanese English Character Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
343 New Nelson (John Haig)
59 Remembering The Kanji (James Heisig)
63 Remembering The Kanji, 6th edition (James Heisig)
408 The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power (Dale Crowley)
89 Tuttle Kanji Cards (Alexander Kask)
3057 2001 Kanji
0a4.5 The Kanji Dictionary
2-1-3 SKIP code
1021.1 Four corner code
1-24-21 JIS X 0208-1997 kuten code
5143 Unicode hex code

子

3 strokes
Radical:
child, seed 子
Parts:
子
child, sign of the rat, 11PM-1AM, first sign of Chinese zodiac
Kun:
こ、 -こ、 ね
On:
シ、 ス、 ツ
Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 1
JLPT level N5
72 of 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Speed

Stroke order

On reading compounds

  • 子 【シ】 child (esp. a boy), viscount, founder of a school of thought (esp. Confucius), master, masters and philosophers (categorization of Chinese classical literature), you, -er (i.e. man who spends all his time doing...)
  • 子宮 【シキュウ】 womb, uterus
  • 中性子 【チュウセイシ】 neutron
  • 精子 【セイシ】 sperm, spermatozoon
  • 主 【ス】 honorific (or familiar) suffix used after a name
  • 恵比寿 【エビス】 Ebisu, god of fishing and commerce
  • 久留子 【クルス】 cross sign
  • 対子 【トイツ】 pair, eyes
  • 七対子 【チートイツ】 seven pairs, winning hand composed of seven pairs

Kun reading compounds

  • 子 【こ】 child, kid, teenager, youngster, young (non-adult) person, (one's) child, offspring, young woman, young (animal), offshoot, interest, new share, player who is not a dealer, young geisha, young prostitute, bird egg, -er (often of young women)
  • 子 【こう】 child, interest
  • 根っこ 【ねっこ】 root (of a plant), stump (of a tree), root (of a problem, etc.), base, foundation, origin, source
  • 江戸っ子 【えどっこ】 (true) Tokyoite, Edoite, Tokyo native, Edokko
  • 子 【ね】 the Rat (first sign of the Chinese zodiac), hour of the Rat (around midnight, 11pm to 1am, or 12 midnight to 2am), north, eleventh month of the lunar calendar
  • 子忌み 【ねいみ】 collecting herbs and pulling out young pine trees by the roots (annual event held on the first day of the Rat of the New Year)
  • 庚子 【かのえね】 Metal Rat (37th term of the sexagenary cycle, e.g. 1960, 2020, 2080)
  • 甲子 【きのえね】 Wood Rat (1st term of the sexagenary cycle, e.g. 1924, 1984, 2044)

Readings

Japanese names:
い、 き、 ぎ、 く、 け、 ねっ
Mandarin Chinese (pinyin):
zi3, zi2, zi5
Korean:
ja

Spanish

  • chiquillo
  • niño

Portuguese

  • criança

French

  • enfant
  • signe de la 1ère branche terrestre
  • signe du Rat (zodiaque)
  • 23 h à 01 h
  • Nord (0°)
31 A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese (Florence Sakade)
40 A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese 3rd edition (Henshall, Seeley and De Groot)
25 A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters (Kenneth G. Henshall)
56 A New Dictionary of Kanji Usage
1264 Classic Nelson (Andrew Nelson)
61 Essential Kanji (P.G. O’Neill)
43 Japanese Kanji Flashcards (Max Hodges and Tomoko Okazaki)
38 Japanese Names (P.G. O’Neill)
2.18 Japanese for Busy People
103 Kanji and Kana (Spahn and Hadamitzky)
103 Kanji and Kana, 2nd Edition (Spahn and Hadamitzky)
69 Kanji in Context (Nishiguchi and Kono)
455 Kodansha Compact Kanji Guide
4196 Kodansha Kanji Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
2125 Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
2872 Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary, 2nd Edition (Jack Halpern)
96 Les Kanjis dans la tete (Yves Maniette)
6930 Morohashi
3390 New Japanese English Character Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
1281 New Nelson (John Haig)
95 Remembering The Kanji (James Heisig)
99 Remembering The Kanji, 6th edition (James Heisig)
42 The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power (Dale Crowley)
18 Tuttle Kanji Cards (Alexander Kask)
3547 2001 Kanji
2c0.1 The Kanji Dictionary
4-3-1 SKIP code
4-2-1 SKIP code
1740.7 Four corner code
1-27-50 JIS X 0208-1997 kuten code
5b50 Unicode hex code