Meaning & readings
little, small
On’yomi ショウ
Kun’yomi ちい.さい、こ-、お-、さ-
Nanori いさら、こう、さざ、しゃお、ちいさ
Origin
This character appears to be a simplified picture of something small. The three strokes suggest a tiny object or person — possibly representing a diminished version of a larger form. Over time, the visual idea of something reduced or minimal in size became the standard way to write the word for "small" or "little." The simplicity of the character itself reinforces the meaning, since fewer strokes naturally suggest something minimal or small.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (小).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 3
- Kangxi radical
- 42
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #114 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+05C0F