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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)
Common readings
Kun
   しか deer   か
Additional readings
On    ロク
Name    しし
Variants
⿅   𢈘 (Chinese)  
Notes
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 馬鹿 (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.
View in the essay collection    All Joy o' Kanji essays  
The essay is also included in the following Thematic Bundles
44
Omnipresent Animals
猿 猫 熊 鹿
Being in Japan means being aware of certain omnipresent animals: the deer who bow to visitors in Nara; the monkeys who bathe in onsens and who fill Monkey Park on Shodoshima; the household cats who have inspired countless sayings, including one meaning "every Tom, Dick, and Harry" because cats are everywhere in Japan; and the fearsome bears who have necessitated bear bells on trails. This bundle shows how the Japanese relate to these species in visual art, in literature from folktales to famous novels, in maneki-neko figurines, in carvings of the three wise monkeys, and more.
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Essay 2025 on 鹿 (deer; 'deer' radical) covers this radical, which practically disappears in 麗 (lovely) and 麓 (foot of a mountain), the only two Jōyō kanji in which it plays a part (besides 鹿 itself).
Components
⿸  广 stony cliff  ⿱  覀 (西) west  比 compare  
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Most useful words by reading
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
か ご し ま け ん 4
noun
Kagoshima prefecture (Kyushu)
(click the word for examples and links)
しか : 18 words FIND ALL
し か 0 し か 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
に ほ ん じ か 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
め が 1 め が 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
し し が き 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.
Quick links
QUICK SEARCH WORD SEARCH KANJI SEARCH COMPONENT SEARCH Find kanji that refer to 鹿
More information
Wiktionary ⇗ | Unicode.org ⇗ | Google Japan ⇗ | Hanziyuan etymology ⇗
Additional data
Henshall: -  Joy o' Kanji : 2025  Key to Kanji: - 

Cascading kanji view

鹿
しか deer   か    
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比
ヒ   くらべる to compare   
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匕
さじ spoon   
覀
west
广
stony cliff
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