Kanji Study

Bushu (Radical) Info: 禾 (のぎ) – two branch tree

Henshall Mnemonic: rice is private and belongs to me myself

Levels: JLPT N4 | JLPT 3 (old) | Grade 6
Frequency: #242 of the 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Common Words and/or Phrases Using this Kanji:

Click any individual kanji to view a similar information sheet for it.
Click [K] to look up the word's individual character(s) at WWWJDIC.
Click [D] to look up the word at WWWJDIC (definition is the same but other useful features exist).
Click [Jisho] to look up the word at Jisho.org.

JLPT N5 Words

• 私   [わたくし]
  (adj-no,n) I; myself; private affairs   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私   [わたし]
  (adj-no,n) I; myself; private affairs   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N2 Words

• 私鉄   [してつ]
  (n) private railway   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私立   [しりつ]
  (n) private (establishment)   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N1 Words

• 私物   [しぶつ]
  (n) private property; personal effects   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私有   [しゆう]
  (n) private ownership   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私用   [しよう]
  (adj-no,n) personal use; private business   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Other Popular Words Not Classified by JLPT

• 公私   [こうし]
  (n) public and private; official and personal; government and people   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私たち   [わたしたち]
  (n) we; us   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私案   [しあん]
  (n) private plan; one's own plan   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私学   [しがく]
  (n) private (non-governmental) school (college, university)   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私企業   [しきぎょう]
  (n) private enterprise   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私見   [しけん]
  (n) personal opinion   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私語   [しご]
  (n) whispering; secret talk   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私事   [しじ]
  (n) personal affairs   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私塾   [しじゅく]
  (n) private school (in house)   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私書箱   [ししょばこ]
  (n) Post Office Box   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私生活   [しせいかつ]
  (n) one's private life   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私設   [しせつ]
  (n) private   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私大   [しだい]
  (n) (abbr) private university or college   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私邸   [してい]
  (n) private residence   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私的   [してき]
  (adj-na,n) personal; private   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私費   [しひ]
  (n) private expense   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私服   [しふく]
  (n) civilian clothes; plain clothes   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 私文書   [しぶんしょ]
  (n) private document   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Find more details for 私 at jisho.org, Yookoso! or WWWJDIC

Acknowledgments

The sofware used to generate this kanji information uses the EDICT and KANJIDIC files. These files are the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group at Monash University and are used in conformance with the Group's license.

NOTE: I converted the sources just mentioned years ago and have never really updated so there may be some missing or incorrect information that has been addressed in the original sources but not here.

The first Stroke Order image used on this page is courtesy of Ulrich Apel's excellent open source KanjiVG project. The second image is from the folks at the excellent Jisho Japanese-English dictionary site and it too is based on KanjiVG.

Classifying the kanji and popular vocabulary by the new JLPT levels was done by consulting Jonathan Waller‘s JLPT Resources page, renshuu, Wictionary, and Nihongo Ichiban.

The Henshall Mnemonics are the copyright of Tuttle Publishing and are the result of the hard work by Professor Henshall. See the list I used here.

If you are curious about the lexicography shown in the word definitions, visit the WWWJDIC abbreviations and codes guide and the JMdict/Edict Lexicographical details page.