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Newborn Babe

On’yomiじ・に・げい
Kun’yomiこ・-こ・-っこ
MeaningsNewborn Babe, Child, Young Of Animals
JLPT N2 7 strokes #668 most common Grade 4 Radical legs
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 児

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

7 strokes
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Draw it on screen and be marked on stroke order and direction.

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 児

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 児

Radical 10 of 214
Legs

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 児 is filed under (legs) — radical number 10 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 儿

練習 · Practice

Drill 児 right now

Three quick games built from this character's real data. Your streak is kept in this browser.

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Newborn Babe じ・に・げい こ・-こ・-っこ
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 児

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.

児童 じどう children; juvenile
育児 いくじ childcare; child-rearing; nursing
孤児 こじ orphan; person without friends
幼児 ようじ young child; toddler; child over 1 but not yet of school age
小児 しょうに young child; infant
女児 じょじ girl; baby girl; schoolgirl
胎児 たいじ fetus; foetus; embryo
男児 だんじ boy; son; man
遺児 いじ orphan; child left by the deceased; abandoned child
園児 えんじ kindergarten pupil; kindergartener; preschooler
名乗り · Name readings

How 児 is read in names

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

同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 児

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

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 児

Place names are where kanji readings get strange — and where you meet this character in the wild.

画数 · 7 strokes

Other 7-stroke kanji

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

頻度 · Frequency

Next in the frequency list

児 is the 668th most common kanji in written Japanese. Learning in frequency order is the fastest route to reading real text.

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質問 · Questions

About the kanji 児

What does the kanji 児 mean?

児 means Newborn Babe, Child, Young Of Animals. It is the 668th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 児?

児 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) じ、に、げい; kun'yomi (native Japanese) こ、-こ、-っこ.

How many strokes does 児 have?

児 is written with 7 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 児?

It appears at JLPT level N2, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 4.

What is the radical of 児?

The radical of 児 is 儿 (legs), radical number 10 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 児 made of?

児 is built from 旧 (old times) and 儿 (legs radical (no. 10)). 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 児?

Common words written with 児 include 児童 (じどう, children; juvenile); 育児 (いくじ, childcare; child-rearing; nursing); 孤児 (こじ, orphan; person without friends).

Which kanji sound the same as 児?

児 shares a reading with 二 (じ), 時 (じ), 事 (じ), 自 (じ), 地 (じ), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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