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Sign Of The Hog

On’yomiがい・かい
Kun’yomi
MeaningsSign Of The Hog, 9-11pm, Twelfth Sign Of The Chinese Zodiac
JLPT N1 6 strokes Name kanji Radical lid
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 亥

Stroke order is not decoration — it determines how the character looks handwritten and how dictionaries index it.

6 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 亥

Almost every kanji is built from a small set of reusable parts. Learn the parts once and you stop memorising thousands of unrelated shapes.

部首 · Radical

The radical of 亥

Radical 8 of 214
Lid

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 亥 is filed under (lid) — radical number 8 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 亠

練習 · Practice

Drill 亥 right now

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Sign Of The Hog がい・かい い
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 亥

Kanji are almost never met alone. These are the most common words built from this character, ordered by how often they actually appear in Japanese.

亥年 イドシ year of the Boar, year of the Pig
亥歳 イドシ year of the Boar, year of the Pig
丁亥 テーガイ Fire Boar (24th term of the sexagenary cycle, e.g. 1947, 2007, 2067)
辛亥 カノトイ Metal Boar (48th term of the sexagenary cycle, e.g. 1911, 1971, 2031)
癸亥 ミズノトイ Water Boar (60th term of the sexagenary cycle, e.g. 1923, 1983, 2043)
亥の子 イノコ day of the Boar in the month of the Boar (the 10th month in the lunar calendar)
名乗り · Name readings

How 亥 is read in names

Japanese names use readings that appear nowhere else in the language. These are 亥's — the reason personal and place names are so hard to read even for native speakers.

同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 亥

Japanese has far more kanji than syllables, so one reading is shared by many characters. These are the ones you will confuse with 亥 — learn them together, not separately.

画数 · 6 strokes

Other 6-stroke kanji

Useful when looking a character up by stroke count — and a common source of visual mix-ups.

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質問 · Questions

About the kanji 亥

What does the kanji 亥 mean?

亥 means Sign Of The Hog, 9-11pm, Twelfth Sign Of The Chinese Zodiac.

How do you read the kanji 亥?

亥 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) がい、かい; kun'yomi (native Japanese) い.

How many strokes does 亥 have?

亥 is written with 6 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 亥?

It appears at JLPT level N1, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in name kanji.

What is the radical of 亥?

The radical of 亥 is 亠 (lid), radical number 8 of the 214 Kangxi radicals. The radical is the component a dictionary files the character under, and it usually points at the character's meaning.

What parts is the kanji 亥 made of?

亥 is built from 亠 (kettle lid radical (no. 8)) and 人 (person). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

What words use the kanji 亥?

Common words written with 亥 include 亥年 (イドシ, year of the Boar, year of the Pig); 亥歳 (イドシ, year of the Boar, year of the Pig); 丁亥 (テーガイ, Fire Boar (24th term of the sexagenary cycle, e.g. 1947, 2007, 2067)).

Which kanji sound the same as 亥?

亥 shares a reading with 会 (かい), 回 (かい), 開 (かい), 外 (がい), 改 (かい), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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