Meaning & readings
cold
On’yomi カン
Kun’yomi さむ.い
Nanori さ、さん
Origin
This character appears to show a simple picture of the concept of cold. The top part suggests a roof or shelter, while the lower section depicts a person huddling inside during winter. By combining the image of someone taking shelter indoors—something people do to escape freezing weather—the character came to mean "cold." The overall composition captures the idea of harsh, frigid conditions that drive people to seek warmth and protection.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (寒).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 40
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1456 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+05BD2