Nihongo

Kanji Detail of 鶏

Level:N1 High
Strokes:19
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AI Explanation
Basic Meaning

This kanji, , primarily means "chicken" or "fowl." It refers to a type of domesticated bird, specifically the rooster (male) and hen (female), and the collective term for the species. It's associated with poultry farming, eggs, and meat.

Readings

・On-yomi (音読み): ケイ (kei) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): にわとり (niwatori)

Usage Examples

⚫︎鶏肉 (toriniku) Translation: Chicken meat ⚫︎鶏卵 (keiran) Translation: Chicken eggs ⚫︎養鶏 (yōkei) Translation: Poultry farming

Origin and Formation

The kanji is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). The left side of the character is a radical, (tori), which means "bird." The right side is (kei), which gives the sound. Thus, the character combines the semantic element of a bird with a phonetic element, indicating the pronunciation.

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