字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

bullet, twang, flip, snap

On’yomi ダン、タン
Kun’yomi ひ.く、-ひ.き、はず.む、たま、はじ.く、はじ.ける、ただ.す、はじ.きゆみ

Origin

This character combines a bow (弓) on the left, which represents the action of shooting or propelling something, with a sound hint on the right that suggests the pronunciation. The bow radical makes sense for the character's core meanings: you use a bow to shoot bullets, and the twanging or snapping motions involved in using a bow match the character's sense of flicking or plucking. The right component is purely there to hint at how to pronounce it—it contributes no additional meaning to the character itself.

弾 12 strokes

Components

  • 弓 radical left
  • 単 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

  • 糾弾 きゅうだん censure; denunciation
  • 実弾 じつだん real bullet; live ammunition
  • 銃弾 じゅうだん bullet (from a rifle)
  • 弾く はじく to flip; to snap
  • 弾み はずみ bounce; spring
  • 弾む はずむ to spring; to bound
  • 弾圧 だんあつ oppression; suppression
  • 弾劾 だんがい impeachment

Related kanji

Same sound component 単
Same radical

Easily confused with

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

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
57
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#853 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+05F3E