字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

boil, cook

On’yomi シャ
Kun’yomi に.る、-に、に.える、に.やす

Origin

This character combines fire at the bottom (灬, a simplified form of the fire radical) with the character 者 on top, which acts as a sound hint for how to pronounce it. The fire component makes clear that the character refers to cooking or heating, while 者 suggests the pronunciation. Together they create a character whose meaning—to boil or cook—comes directly from the presence of fire, the essential element in that process.

煮 12 strokes

Components

  • 者 sound hint top
  • 灬 radical bottom

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

Common words

  • 雑煮 ぞうに soup containing rice cakes and vegetables (New Year's dish)
  • 煮る にる to boil; to simmer
  • 煮物 にもの nimono; food cooked by boiling or stewing
  • 煮える にえる to be boiled; to be cooked
  • 煮やす にやす to cook inside
  • 煮込む にこむ to boil well; to stew
  • 煮詰める につめる to boil down; to concentrate (soup, milk, stock, etc.)

Related kanji

Same sound component 者
Same radical

Easily confused with

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

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
86
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1565 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0716E