字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

picture, drawing, painting, sketch

On’yomi カイ、エ

Origin

The character 絵 combines thread (糸), which marks it as related to woven or textile work, with 会, a sound hint that gives you a clue to how the character is pronounced. In ancient times, pictures and drawings were often created using silk threads and fine embroidery, so the thread component makes sense for a character meaning picture or painting. The 会 component doesn't contribute to the meaning—it's there mainly to tell you roughly how to say the word. Over time, the meaning expanded from embroidered pictures to any kind of visual artwork or drawing.

絵 12 strokes

Components

  • 糸 radical left
  • 会 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

  • 影絵 かげえ shadow picture; silhouette
  • 絵画 かいが painting; picture
  • 絵巻 えまき picture scroll
  • 絵本 えほん picture book
  • 墨絵 すみえ ink painting
  • 油絵 あぶらえ oil painting
  • 挿絵 さしえ illustration (in a book, newspaper, etc.); picture
  • 絵の具 えのぐ paint; coloring materials

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
120
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#895 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+07D75