Meaning & readings

parent, intimacy, relative, familiarity, dealer (cards)

On’yomi シン
Kun’yomi おや、おや-、した.しい、した.しむ
Nanori ぎ、ちか、のり

Origin

The left side of this character combines (which sounds like shin) with (tree), giving a sound hint for how the character should be pronounced. The right side is , meaning "to see" or "to look," which acts as a classifier suggesting the category. Together, the character evolved to mean someone you look to and are close to — a parent or relative. The "see" component captures the idea of recognizing and being familiar with someone, which is the core of intimacy and kinship.

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

16 strokes

Components

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

Common words

  • 近親 きんしん near relative
  • 懇親 こんしん friendship; intimacy
  • 親愛 しんあい deep affection
  • 親衛 しんえい monarch's guards
  • 親子 おやこ parent and child
  • 親指 おやゆび thumb
  • 親戚 しんせき relative; relation
  • 親切 しんせつ kind; gentle

Reference

Strokes
16
Kangxi radical
147
Grade
Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#406 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+089AA