字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

soft

On’yomi ナン
Kun’yomi やわ.らか、やわ.らかい

Origin

This character combines two parts: the left side showing a wheel or vehicle (車), which acts as a classifier to indicate the category of meaning, and the right side (欠) which is a sound hint suggesting how the character should be pronounced. The connection to "soft" likely comes from describing something flexible or yielding, possibly imagined in contrast to the rigid structure of a wheel or cart. Over time, the character's meaning broadened from a specific physical softness to the general concept of being soft or gentle.

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

軟 11 strokes

Components

  • 車 radical left
  • 欠 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

  • 柔軟 じゅうなん flexible; lithe
  • 軟化 なんか softening
  • 軟骨 なんこつ cartilage
  • 軟式 なんしき soft (esp. of softball, tennis, etc.)
  • 軟弱 なんじゃく soft and lacking firmness; weak
  • 軟禁 なんきん house arrest
  • 軟着陸 なんちゃくりく soft landing
  • 軟派 なんぱ seducer; smooth talker

Related kanji

Same sound component 欠
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
159
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1269 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+08EDF