Components

鹿 means 'deer'

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Strokes : 11    Radical number: 198    Frequency: 1022   JLPT: N1    Usefulness: 5    Study set: 5-10    Grade: 8   Intermediate lesson: -    Beginner lesson: -   Begins 33 words   Used in 141 words   Used in 1448 names   Component in 54 kanji (2 Jōyō)
Jōyō (常用)
Kun
   しか deer   
On    ロク
Name    しし
A Joy o' Kanji essay is available for 鹿 - click the badge to download
In parts of Japan (e.g., in Nara and Miyajima), deer are quite visible - so much so that oblivious people can't see the mountains for the deer, figuratively speaking. Because it's half of 鹿 (fool), this new Joyo kanji enables us to ridicule idiots (who have a contagious and incurable condition, by the way). As both a radical and an autonomous kanji, 鹿 appears in the names of several animals.
Essay 2025 on 鹿 (deer; 'deer' radical) covers this radical, which practically disappears in (lovely) and (foot of a mountain), the only two Jōyō kanji in which it plays a part (besides 鹿 itself).
⿸  广 stony cliff  ⿱   (西) west   compare  
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In the most useful 10,000 words in Japanese, 鹿 is used 3 times, read 2 ways.
Across all words in Japanese, 鹿 is used 125 times, read 3 ways (with 3 variations).
Showing:
ロク : 3 words FIND ALL
noun
deer raised upon the grounds of a shrine (who serve as messengers of the gods)
(click the word for examples and links)
か : 81 words FIND ALL
4
noun
Kagoshima prefecture (Kyushu)
(click the word for examples and links)
しか : 18 words FIND ALL
0 2
noun
deer (esp. the sika deer, Cervus nippon)
(click the word to view an additional 3 readings and 2 forms, examples and links)
しか (read as じか) : 17 words FIND ALL
2
noun
sika deer (Cervus nippon); sika; spotted deer; Japanese deer  (often written with kana only)
(click the word to view an additional 1 form, examples and links)
か (read as が) : 2 words FIND ALL
1 0
noun
doe (female deer)  (see also: 牡鹿)
(click the word to view an additional 3 readings and 1 form, examples and links)
しし: 4 words. FIND ALL
2
noun
1. branch-twined hedge around a field to keep out wild boars and deer
2. abatis
(click the word to view an additional 1 form, examples and links)
An additional 16 less common words include 鹿 but the reading has not yet been categorized.
Henshall: Joy o' Kanji : 2025  Key to Kanji:

Cascading kanji view

鹿
しか deer   か    
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さじ spoon   
west
广
stony cliff
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