The kanji 千 primarily means "thousand". It represents a large quantity, specifically a thousand units of something. This forms the basis for its various applications in counting, measurement, and representing large numbers.

・On-yomi (音読み): セン (sen) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): ち (chi)

⚫︎千円 Translation: 1,000 yen ⚫︎千人 Translation: 1,000 people ⚫︎千代 Translation: a thousand generations; eternity

The kanji 千 is a pictograph. It originates from a drawing of a person. It is thought that the character represents a person stretching out their arms, and it was eventually adopted to mean “thousand”. This is because the character looks like a person's arms are spread wide and ready to grasp something, like a thousand things. Over time, the form of the character evolved into its current form.