細 – dainty, get thin, taper

11 strokesTaught in grade 2#537 in newspaper frequencyN5 vocabulary

The kanji 細 means dainty, get thin, taper, slender, narrow, detailed, precise. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is サイ (sai); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is ほそ.い、ほそ.る、こま.か、こま.かい (hosoi, hosoru, komaka, komakai). It is written with 11 strokes, under radical 糸 (no. 120).

Stroke order

Stroke order from KanjiVG. Practise others with the stroke order lookup.

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	サイ	sai
Kun’yomi	ほそ.い	hosoi
Kun’yomi	ほそ.る	hosoru
Kun’yomi	こま.か	komaka
Kun’yomi	こま.かい	komakai

A dot separates the kanji’s part from the okurigana (kana written after it), e.g. まな.ぶ → 学ぶ.

Radical and components

Radical: 糸 (Kangxi radical 120). Components: 糸・幺・小・田.

Words using 細

細いほそいthin細かいこまかいsmall細菌さいきんbacterium細工さいくwork細胞さいぼうcell詳細しょうさいdetails心細いこころぼそいhelpless細やかこまやかtender

Example sentences

彼は太っているくせに声は細い。

His voice is thin even though he is fat.

Tatoeba #102553

塩漬けキャベツを細かく切る。

Chop the pickled cabbage finely.

Tatoeba #638321

目の細かい織りのカーペットが一般的には価値が高い。

Tightly-knit carpets are generally more valuable.

Tatoeba #79965

Kanji with the same radical

経約統総続結組終線紙系編織給維素

Sources: KANJIDIC2 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0), KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0), Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). About the data.