Components

元 means 'origin' or 'original'

Animation / stroke order not available.
LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
Strokes : 4    Frequency: 223   JLPT: N4    Usefulness: 2    Study set: 2-1    Grade: 2   Intermediate lesson: 10    Beginner lesson: 19   Begins 136 words   Used in 385 words   Used in 2610 names   Component in 46 kanji (5 Jōyō)
Jōyō (常用)
On
   ゲン   ガン
Kun
   もと origin
Name    ちか   はじめ   はる   ゆき   よし
⿱   two   legs  
Explore these components visually on The Kanji Map ⇗
LOG IN to view kanji mastery data
LOG IN to view your flashcards
In the most useful 10,000 words in Japanese, 元 is used 18 times, read 3 ways.
Across all words in Japanese, 元 is used 378 times, read 3 ways.
Showing:
ゲン : 219 words FIND ALL
1
1. lively; full of spirit; energetic; vigorous; vital; spirited
2. healthy; well; fit; in good health
(click the word to view an additional 2 forms, useful expressions, examples and links)
ガン : 11 words FIND ALL
1
adverbial noun (fukushitekimeishi), noun (temporal) (jisoumeishi)
first year (of a specific reign)
(click the word for examples and links)
もと : 148 words FIND ALL
0 3
noun
1. home area; home town
(click the word for examples and links)
An additional 8 less common words include 元 but the reading has not yet been categorized.
Henshall: 117 (originally: 106)  Joy o' Kanji : 106  Key to Kanji: 284 

Cascading kanji view

ゲン   ガン   origin; original   もと origin   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
ニ   ふた    ふた two   
legs
Problem with this kanji? Question or comment? Please CONTACT US.
Kanshudo is your AI Japanese tutor, and your constant companion on the road to mastery of the Japanese language. To get started learning Japanese, just follow the study recommendations on your Dashboard. You can use Quick search (accessible using the icon at the top of every page) to look up any Japanese word, kanji or grammar point, as well as to find anything on Kanshudo quickly. For an overview, take the tour.
Search results include information from a variety of sources, including Kanshudo (kanji mnemonics, kanji readings, kanji components, vocab and name frequency data, grammar points, examples), JMdict (vocabulary), Tatoeba (examples), Enamdict (names), KanjiVG (kanji animations and stroke order), and Joy o' Kanji (kanji and radical synopses). Translations provided by Google's Neural Machine Translation engine. For more information see credits.
×