Used when something serves as a substitute or stands in for something else. Often appears in compounds like 代わり (かわり).
This part can be used as a substitute for the genuine one.
Refers to the physical material or substance something is made of. Common in contexts like construction or manufacturing.
The material of this building is mainly wood.
Used to indicate the monetary value or price of something. Often seen in commercial or transactional contexts.
How much is the price of this product?
shiro (old land unit)
Archaic unit of land area, approximately 19.83 square meters, one-fiftieth of a tan. No longer in common use.
See also: 反 (たん)
In the Edo period, land area was sometimes expressed in shiro.
値段 is the standard, everyday word for a price, while 代 (しろ) is a rarer, more literary synonym occasionally seen in phrases like お代.
代 read だい is the common reading, used in everyday words like 時代 and 代金, while the same kanji read as 代 (しろ) is a narrower, older term for substitute, material, or price mostly confined to set compounds.
城 (しろ) means 'castle' and is an everyday noun, whereas 代 (しろ) is a rare, mostly literary term for substitute, material, or price that only shares the sound しろ.
白 (しろ) means 'white' and is a common color word, while 代 (しろ) is an unrelated, archaic term for substitute or price that merely happens to sound the same.
ransom
drinking money; money for drinks
wickerwork; woven bamboo or reed lattice
dividing up a fishing catch
article; goods; product · thing; stuff; affair; fellow · prostitute · price; cost; money
yorishiro; object housing a kami; spirit vessel
curtain separating central room from aisles (palatial-style architecture)
representation of a sacred object; substitute effigy · paper doll for purification; hitogata
overlap width; pasting margin · leeway; elbowroom; allowance
Standard kanji spelling for this word.
Kana spelling is sometimes used for clarity, especially in contexts where the kanji 代 might be read as だい or よ.
The historical derivation is uncertain. The kanji 代 is conventionally associated with meanings of substitution, material, and price, but the exact origin of the reading しろ is unclear.
rice nursery; seedling bed
Ophidion asiro; cusk eel species
snowmelt water; meltwater from snow
puddling a rice field; preparing a flooded paddy for planting
machining allowance; cutting stock