Kanshudo Component Builder

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By default the Component Builder shows the most common Joyo kanji components (ie, components which are themselves Joyo kanji, or which are used in at least 3 other Joyo kanji). Select an alternative set of components below.

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For details of all components and their English names, see the Component collections.

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For detailed instructions, see the Component builder how to guide.

To find any kanji, first try to identify the components it is made up of. Once you have identified any component, search for it in any of three ways:

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Notice that 漢 is made of several components: 氵艹口夫
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Alternatively, look for a component in the list. 氵艹口 each have three strokes; 夫 has four strokes
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Components

爪 means 'claw'

Animation / stroke order not available.

Strokes : 4 Radical number: 87 Frequency: 1796 JLPT: N1 Usefulness: 5 Study set: 5-32 Grade: 8 Intermediate lesson: - Beginner lesson: - Begins 41 words Used in 63 words Used in 127 names Component in 29 kanji (3 Jōyō)

Jōyō (常用)

Common readings

Kun

つめつま- claw; fingernail

Additional readings

On ソウ

Variants

⺥⺤爫㕚

Notes

爪 is more common as a component than on its own, usually in the form ⺤. In mnemonics we often use it a verb, ie 'to claw (in)'.

A Joy o' Kanji essay is available for 爪 - click the badge to download

Delving into the 爪 kanji introduces you to rich idiomatic expressions about a wide range of things: following in people's footsteps, not showing off, preparing to defeat opponents, saving money (sometimes to extremes), and bearing scars after traumas. This new addition to the Joyo set is a prevalent radical that's useful to know, but the variants can be hard to recognize unless you've learned what they are.

View in the essay collection All Joy o' Kanji essays

Essay 2071 on 爪 (nail, claw; "claw" radical) covers this prevalent shape, which serves as the on-duty radical in 爵 (1344: rank of nobility) and as a component in 菜 (483: vegetable), to name just two examples of places you wouldn't expect to see claws!

Synopsis of Radical Note for 爪 ⇗ by Joy o' Kanji

See also

瓜 melon

Mastery

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Most useful words by reading

In the most useful 10,000 words in Japanese, 爪 is used 2 times, read 2 ways.

Across all words in Japanese, 爪 is used 62 times, read 3 ways (with 1 variation).

Showing: Usage across all words in Japanese Usage in the 10,000 most useful words in Japanese

ソウ : 5 words FIND ALL

noun

1. claws and fangs; claws and tusks

2. clutches; devious design; means of causing harm; weapon

(click the word to view an additional 2 meanings, examples and links)

TEST

つめ : 31 words FIND ALL

noun

1. nail (e.g. fingernail, toenail); claw; talon; hoof

2. plectrum; pick

(click the word to view an additional 1 meaning, examples and links)

TEST

つま- (read as つま) : 15 words FIND ALL

つまようじ

noun

toothpick

(click the word to view an additional 2 forms, examples and links)

TEST

つめ (read as づめ) : 11 words FIND ALL

noun

nail (e.g. fingernail, toenail) (see also: 鉤爪)

(click the word to view an additional 1 form, examples and links)

TEST

Quick links

QUICK SEARCH WORD SEARCH KANJI SEARCH COMPONENT SEARCH Find kanji that refer to 爪

More information

Wiktionary ⇗ | Unicode.org ⇗ | Google Japan ⇗

Additional data

Henshall: - Joy o' Kanji : 2071 Key to Kanji: -

Cascading kanji view

爪

つめつま- claw; fingernail

Problem with this kanji? Question or comment? Please CONTACT US.

Search results include information from a variety of sources, including Kanshudo (kanji mnemonics, kanji readings, kanji components, vocab and name frequency data, grammar points), 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.

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