Meaning & readings

rice field, rice paddy

On’yomi デン
Kun’yomi
Nanori いなか、おか、たん、で、とう、や

Origin

This character is a simple picture of a rice paddy divided into sections. The four strokes form a square with a line through the middle, which resembles looking down at an actual flooded rice field with its rectangular plots separated by water channels and paths. Because rice farming was central to East Asian civilization, this pictograph became the standard way to write the word for rice field, and later expanded to mean the field itself in any context.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.

5 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (田).

Common words

  • 塩田 えんでん saltpan; field for drying salt
  • 桑田 そうでん mulberry plantation
  • 上田 じょうでん high rice field; very fertile rice field
  • 水田 すいでん (water-filled) paddy field
  • 田園 でんえん the country; countryside
  • 田舎 いなか rural area; countryside
  • 田畑 たはた fields (of rice and other crops)
  • 油田 ゆでん oil field

Reference

Strokes
5
Kangxi radical
102
Grade
Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#90 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+07530