字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

juvenile, child

On’yomi ドウ
Kun’yomi わらべ
Nanori ぱ

Origin

The character 童 combines two parts to represent a child. The top component 立, which means "stand," suggests an upright human figure or the idea of a person. The bottom component 里 serves as a sound hint, telling you roughly how the character should be pronounced, rather than contributing to the meaning. Together, these parts create a character that originally depicted a standing child or young person, which evolved into the general meaning of "child" or "juvenile."

童 12 strokes

Components

  • 立 radical top
  • 里 sound hint bottom

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

Common words

  • 学童 がくどう schoolchild; pupil
  • 児童 じどう children; juvenile
  • 神童 しんどう child prodigy; infant genius
  • 童顔 どうがん child's face
  • 童心 どうしん child's mind; childlike innocence
  • 童謡 どうよう children's song; nursery rhyme
  • 童話 どうわ children's story; fairy tale

Related kanji

Same sound component 里
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
117
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1138 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+07AE5