貝 — shellfish, shell

かい貝 shellfish

U+8C9D Unicode hex codepoint — a unique identifier for this character in the Unicode standard. JLPT 2 Japanese-Language Proficiency Test level. N5 is beginner, N1 is the most advanced. This kanji appears at the 2 level. Grade 1 Japanese school grade level in which this kanji is taught. Grade 1 is first year of elementary school. 7 strokes 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 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

Kangxi Radical

This kanji is itself Radical #154

Building Blocks

め目 eye #109

はち八 eight #12

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.

Used as component in (1)

か買 buy

Meanings

word

かい 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

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