Meaning & readings
think
On’yomi シ
Kun’yomi おも.う、おもえら.く、おぼ.す
Origin
This character shows a person's heart or mind (心) inside a field or bounded space (田). The ancient idea was that thinking happens within the mind, so combining the symbol for the heart—which Japanese associated with emotions and consciousness—with an enclosing frame suggested the act of internal reflection. Over time, this image of the mind working within itself came to mean "to think" or "to ponder."
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 61
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #132 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+0601D