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Kotomora

字

character, letter, word, section of village

JLPTN4StatusJōyō · grade 1FrequencyTop 500Strokes6

Readings

On'yomi

  • ジ

Kun'yomi

  • あざ
  • あざな
  • -な

Meaning

字 centers on a written symbol that carries meaning: a character, letter, or word. The 'section of village' meaning is a specific historical usage where a character was used to name a district.

Most common words using 字

24 of 902
  • 文字もじ
    N3

    letter (of an alphabet); character

  • 字あざ
    N1

    section of village

  • 字じ
    N5

    character (esp. kanji); letter; written text

  • 数字すうじ
    N3

    numeral; digit; numeric character

  • 漢字かんじ
    N5

    kanji; Chinese character

  • 字幕じまく

    subtitles; captioning

  • 赤字あかじ
    N2

    (being in) the red; deficit

  • 文字通りもじどおり
    N1

    literally; to the letter

  • 誤字ごじ
    N1

    misprint; misspelling; typo; typographical error; erratum

  • 苗字みょうじ
    N3

    surname; family name; last name

  • 十字架じゅうじか
    N1

    cross (for crucifixion); the Cross (of Christ)

  • 絵文字えもじ

    emoji

  • 黒字くろじ
    N2

    (being in) the black; surplus

  • 頭文字かしらもじ

    first letter of a word; capital letter (at the start of a word or sentence)

  • 活字かつじ
    N2

    (piece of) type; movable type; moveable type; printing type

  • ローマ字ローマじ
    N4

    Latin alphabet; Roman alphabet

  • 大文字おおもじ
    N1

    uppercase letter; capital letter

  • 十字じゅうじ

    cross; cross shape

  • 小文字こもじ
    N1

    lowercase letter

  • 太字ふとじ

    boldface; bold-type; thick characters

  • 英字えいじ
    N1

    English letter; alphabetic character

  • 点字てんじ

    braille

  • 字体じたい
    N1

    form of a character (e.g. simplified, traditional)

  • 習字しゅうじ
    N2

    penmanship; calligraphy

Explore all words using 字 →

Study

Etymology

字 combines 宀 (roof) and 子 (child). Historically, it represented a child being nurtured under a roof, which extended to the idea of 'nurturing' written characters and then to characters themselves.

Meaning mnemonic

Under a roof 宀, a child 子 learns to write their first characters. Picture a child at home practicing letters.

Reading mnemonic

For ジ, imagine a child under the roof writing the letter 'G' over and over: 'G' sounds like ジ, and the child is learning characters.