Onyomi: ボウ, ボッ · Kunyomi: - · Meanings: boy, priest, priest's residence
Kanji for boy, priest, priests residence
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Find visually similar kanji, commonly confused characters, related meanings, and useful words connected to 坊.
The kanji 坊 combines the earth radical 土 with the phonetic element 方. Originally, it referred to a small area of land or a place where monks lived — a temple courtyard or a child’s dwelling. Over time, 坊 came to mean “boy,” “priest,” or “neighborhood,” carrying the sense of a young person or a humble place connected to the earth and community.
Earth combined with direction — 坊 means boy, monk, or neighborhood, a place tied to land and life.
Picture a small courtyard where children or monks play and live — that’s 坊, the kanji of youth, community, and grounded spaces.
| Word | Reading | Meaning | Meta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 坊 | ぼう | bonze, monk | Noun |
| 坊さん | ぼうさん | Buddhist priest, monk | common JLPT-N2 Noun |
| 坊ちゃん | ぼっちゃん | (another's) son, boy, young master | common JLPT-N2 JLPT-N1 Noun |
| 坊や | ぼうや | boy, son, child | JLPT-N2 Noun |
| 坊主 | ぼうず | Buddhist priest, bonze | common Noun |
| 坊ちゃん団子 | ぼっちゃんだんご | Botchan dango, tricolor dango on a skewer (matcha, egg yolk, and red bean paste) | Noun |
| 坊ち | ぼんち | young gentleman, boy | Noun |
| 坊っちゃん | ぼっちゃん | Botchan (1906 novel by Natsume Sōseki) | Noun |
| 坊様 | ぼんさま | monk, priest | Noun |
| 坊の主 | ぼうのあるじ | master of the priests quarters | Noun |