字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

dwindle, decrease, reduce, decline, curtail, get hungry

On’yomi ゲン
Kun’yomi へ.る、へ.らす

Origin

The left side, the water radical, suggests something flowing or diminishing, which connects to the meanings of decrease and dwindle. The right side, which sounds like "kan," is a sound hint that tells you roughly how to pronounce the character without adding to its meaning. Together, this combination of a meaning-bearing radical and a pronunciation guide became the character for "reduce" or "get less" — the image of water flowing away capturing the sense of something gradually becoming smaller.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

減 12 strokes

Components

  • 氵 radical left
  • 咸 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

  • 加減 かげん degree; extent
  • 軽減 けいげん abatement; reduction
  • 激減 げきげん dramatic decrease; sharp drop
  • 減る へる to decrease (in size or number); to diminish
  • 減額 げんがく reduction (esp. in price or cost); diminution
  • 減産 げんさん decrease in production
  • 減収 げんしゅう fall; decrease (in income)
  • 減少 げんしょう decrease; reduction

Related kanji

Same sound component 咸
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
85
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#261 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06E1B