財 (Property) — Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

property, money, wealth, assets

On’yomi ザイ、サイ、ゾク

Kun’yomi たから

Origin

The character combines two parts: the 貝 component on the left originally depicted a cowrie shell, which was used as currency and a measure of wealth in ancient times, so it came to represent anything of value or treasure. The 才 component on the right serves as a sound hint, suggesting roughly how the character should be pronounced, rather than contributing a meaning. Together, this pairing — a treasure-related symbol plus a pronunciation guide — created a character meaning wealth, property, and assets.

財 10 strokes

Components

貝 radical left
才 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

家財かざい household belongings; household goods
財界ざいかい financial world; business circles
財源ざいげん source of funds; resources
財産ざいさん property; fortune
財政ざいせい public finance
財団ざいだん foundation (institution); syndicate
財閥ざいばつ zaibatsu; financial conglomerate
財布さいふ wallet; purse

Easily confused with

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

頂 place on the head, receive

Reference

Strokes: 10
Kangxi radical: 154
Formation type: Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade: Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank: #494 (newspapers)
Former JLPT: level 2
Unicode: U+08CA1