Meaning & readings
dainty, get thin, taper, slender, narrow, detailed, precise
On’yomi サイ
Kun’yomi ほそ.い、ほそ.る、こま.か、こま.かい
Origin
This character combines thread (糸), which represents fibrous or string-like things, with a sound hint (田) that guides pronunciation. Because threads are naturally thin and fine, the character came to express the idea of being slender, narrow, or detailed. The thread component acts like a semantic category marker, telling you this character relates to thread-like qualities, while the right side primarily helps you remember how to say it.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 11
- Kangxi radical
- 120
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #537 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+07D30