字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

document, records

On’yomi シ

Origin

This character combines the radical for "words" or "speech" on the left with a sound hint on the right. The sound component, which is pronounced "shi," tells you roughly how to say the whole character. Since writing and records are fundamentally about preserving words and information, pairing the speech radical with a sound hint for "shi" created a character meaning documents or records. The left component signals that this is about language and communication, while the right component helps speakers remember the pronunciation.

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

誌 14 strokes

Components

  • 言 radical left
  • 志 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

  • 雑誌 ざっし magazine; journal
  • 誌上 しじょう in a magazine
  • 誌面 しめん page of a magazine
  • 地誌 ちし topography; geographical description
  • 日誌 にっし journal; log
  • 週刊誌 しゅうかんし weekly (publication); weekly magazine
  • 書誌学 しょしがく bibliography (study of books); bibliology
  • 学会誌 がっかいし academic journal

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
14
Kangxi radical
149
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#851 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+08A8C