貝 — shellfish, shell

かい貝 shellfish

Grade 1 Japanese school grade level in which this kanji is taught. Grade 1 is first year of elementary school. 7 strokes animal

U+8C9D Unicode hex codepoint — a unique identifier for this character in the Unicode standard. Freq #1787 Frequency rank among the ~2,500 most common kanji in Japanese newspapers. Lower number = more common. Heisig #54 Index in James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" — a popular textbook that teaches kanji through mnemonics and stories. Radical #154

Meanings

shellfish
shell

word

かい・がい kai Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

貝(かい) kai shellfish 赤(あか) 貝(がい) akagai red clam 魚(ぎょ) 貝(かい) gyokai fish and shellfish

Stroke order

Stroke data from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Components

Composed of

め目 eye #109

はち八 eight #12

Used as component in (39)

かい買 buy いん員 member ふ負 defeat ひ費 expense しょう賞 prize はい敗 failure か貨 freight ためる貯 savings しする資 assets しつ質 substance

Compound ideograph (会意). 目 (eye, here the shell's oval shape) above 八 (legs/opening). A shellfish. Cowrie shells were ancient currency, so 貝 appears in many money-related kanji.

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Kangxi Radical The Kangxi radicals are a set of 214 character components standardized in the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary. Every kanji is classified under one radical, used for dictionary lookup and character organization.

#154 貝 shell

貝 — shellfish, shell

Meanings

word

かい・がい kai Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

Stroke order

Components

Composed of

Used as component in (39)

Kangxi Radical The Kangxi radicals are a set of 214 character components standardized in the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary. Every kanji is classified under one radical, used for dictionary lookup and character organization.

Keyboard Shortcuts

General

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貝 — shellfish, shell

Meanings

word

かい ・がい kai Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

Stroke order

Components

Composed of

Used as component in (39)

Kangxi Radical The Kangxi radicals are a set of 214 character components standardized in the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary. Every kanji is classified under one radical, used for dictionary lookup and character organization.

Keyboard Shortcuts

General

かい・がい kai Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).