字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

flavor, taste

On’yomi ミ
Kun’yomi あじ、あじ.わう

Origin

The character 味 shows the mouth radical 口 on the left, which signals that this character relates to something you experience through your mouth. On the right is 未, which serves as a sound hint telling you roughly how to pronounce the character — it has nothing to do with the meaning. Together, the mouth component combined with this pronunciation guide created the character for taste or flavor, the sensory experience that happens in your mouth.

味 8 strokes

Components

  • 口 radical left
  • 未 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 意味 いみ meaning; significance
  • 塩味 しおあじ salty taste; saltiness
  • 加味 かみ seasoning; flavoring
  • 気味 きみ sensation; feeling
  • 興味 きょうみ interest (in something); curiosity (about something)
  • 吟味 ぎんみ close examination; careful investigation
  • 苦味 にがみ bitterness; bitter taste
  • 酸味 さんみ sourness; acidity

Related kanji

Same sound component 未
Same radical

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
30
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#442 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+05473