字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

warm

On’yomi オン
Kun’yomi あたた.か、あたた.かい、あたた.まる、あたた.める、ぬく
Nanori あつ、あつし、なお、はる、ゆ、ゆたか

Origin

The character 温 combines water (氵) on the left, which is a classifier showing this kanji deals with liquid or moisture, with a sound hint component (昷) on the right that indicates the pronunciation. The connection between water and warmth makes sense because warm water was an important concept in daily life—think of heated water for bathing or cooking. Over time, the character came to mean "warm" in general, not just warm water, though the water component remains as a reminder of its origins.

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

温 12 strokes

Components

  • 氵 radical left
  • 昷 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

  • 温い ぬるい lukewarm; tepid
  • 温厚 おんこう gentle; mild-mannered
  • 温室 おんしつ greenhouse; hothouse
  • 温床 おんしょう hotbed; breeding ground
  • 温泉 おんせん hot spring
  • 温存 おんぞん preservation; retainment
  • 温帯 おんたい temperate zone
  • 温暖 おんだん warm; mild

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
85
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#838 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06E29