Meaning & readings
ear
On’yomi ジ
Kun’yomi みみ
Nanori がみ
Origin
The character 耳 is a simple picture of a human ear. The enclosed rectangular space represents the outer part of the ear, while the internal strokes suggest the ear canal and inner structures. This pictographic approach—drawing the actual shape of the body part—is one of the oldest ways Chinese characters were formed, and it directly connects the written symbol to the object it names.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (耳).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 128
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1328 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+08033