Onyomi: ジ · Kunyomi: -な, あざ, あざな · Meanings: character, letter, section of village, word
Kanji for character, letter, section of village, word
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Find visually similar kanji, commonly confused characters, related meanings, and useful words connected to 字.
The kanji 字 combines the roof radical 宀, meaning “house” or “shelter,” with 子, meaning “child.” Together, they originally described a child inside a house — a symbol of learning or being taught at home. Over time, it came to mean “character” or “letter,” as children learned writing within their homes or temples.
A child under a roof — 字 means character, letter, or written symbol.
Imagine a child sitting under a roof, learning to write — that’s 字, the kanji for letters and characters.
| Word | Reading | Meaning | Meta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 字 | じ | character (esp. kanji), letter, written text | common JLPT-N4 Noun |
| 字 | あざ | section of village | common JLPT-N1 Noun, Suffix |
| 字 | あざな | Chinese courtesy name (name formerly given to adult Chinese men, used in place of their given name in formal situations) | Noun |
| 字幕 | じまく | subtitles, captioning | common Noun |
| 字引 | じびき | dictionary | common JLPT-N5 Noun |
| 字数 | じすう | number of characters, number of letters | common Noun |
| 字句 | じく | wording, words and phrases, way of expression, token | Noun |
| 字体 | じたい | form of a character (e.g. simplified, traditional) | JLPT-N1 Noun |
| 字書 | じしょ | dictionary of Chinese characters, kanji dictionary | Noun |
| 字形 | じけい | character style, character form | common Noun |