Meaning & readings
blue, green
On’yomi セイ、ショウ
Kun’yomi あお、あお-、あお.い
Nanori お
Origin
The kanji 青 combines two elements to express the idea of blue or green. The bottom component 月 represents the moon or something pale and luminous. The top component 龶 suggests plants or growth. Together, these parts evoke the color of growing things and the natural world — the blue-green of plants, water, and the sky. Over time, this combination came to represent the color blue-green itself, which in Japanese includes what English speakers might separate into both blue and green.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 龶
- 月
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 174
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #589 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+09752