字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

salt

On’yomi エン
Kun’yomi しお

Origin

The character 塩 combines earth or soil (土) on the left, which makes sense because salt is extracted from the ground, with a sound component (監) on the right that hints at the character's pronunciation. The earth radical classifies this as something related to the ground or minerals, while the right side tells you roughly how to say it. Together, these parts show a substance that comes from the earth and sounds like "えん" (en).

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

塩 13 strokes

Components

  • 土 radical left
  • 監V sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 塩化 えんか chloridation; salification
  • 塩基 えんき base
  • 塩酸 えんさん hydrochloric acid
  • 塩素 えんそ chlorine (Cl)
  • 塩田 えんでん saltpan; field for drying salt
  • 塩分 えんぶん salt; salt content
  • 塩味 しおあじ salty taste; saltiness
  • 岩塩 がんえん halite; rock salt

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
32
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1148 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+05869