字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

grace, kindness, goodness, favor, mercy, blessing, benefit

On’yomi オン
Nanori めぐみ

Origin

The character 恩 combines a heart radical at the bottom, which marks this as being about emotions and inner qualities, with 因 at the top serving as a sound hint for pronunciation. The heart component is the meaningful part—it tells you this character relates to feelings and emotional states. The 因 component above it doesn't contribute to the meaning but helps indicate how the character should be pronounced. Together, the character came to mean grace and kindness because these are virtues that spring from a good, compassionate heart.

恩 10 strokes

Components

  • 因 sound hint top
  • 心 radical bottom

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

Common words

  • 恩給 おんきゅう pension (esp. public servant's)
  • 恩恵 おんけい grace; favor
  • 恩師 おんし teacher (to whom one owes a debt of gratitude); mentor
  • 恩賜 おんし Imperial gift
  • 恩赦 おんしゃ amnesty; pardon
  • 恩人 おんじん benefactor; patron
  • 恩返し おんがえし paying back a favour; repayment (of an obligation, kindness, etc.)
  • 恩知らず おんしらず ungrateful

Related kanji

Same sound component 因
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
10
Kangxi radical
61
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1418 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+06069