Meaning & readings
fur, hair, feather, down
On’yomi モウ
Kun’yomi け
Nanori めん、も
Origin
This character is a simple picture of hair or fur. The strokes resemble a few long strands or a tuft of hair sprouting upward. Because hair, fur, and feathers are all similar wispy, fine materials that grow on bodies, the character came to represent all of these meanings together. It's one of the oldest and most basic kanji, directly showing what it means through its simple brushstrokes.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (毛).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 4
- Kangxi radical
- 82
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1179 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06BDB