然 – sort of thing, so, if so

12 strokesTaught in grade 4#401 in newspaper frequencyN4 vocabulary

The kanji 然 means sort of thing, so, if so, in that case, well. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is ゼン、ネン (zen, nen); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is しか、しか.り、しか.し、さ (shika, shikari, shikashi, sa). It is written with 12 strokes, under radical 火 (no. 86).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	ゼン	zen
On’yomi	ネン	nen
Kun’yomi	しか	shika
Kun’yomi	しか.り	shikari
Kun’yomi	しか.し	shikashi
Kun’yomi	さ	sa

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: 火 (Kangxi radical 86). Components: 犬・夕・杰.

Words using 然

全然ぜんぜん(not) at all自然しぜんnature偶然ぐうぜんcoincidence依然いぜんstill天然てんねんnature突然とつぜんabrupt当然とうぜんnatural自然科学しぜんかがくnatural science公然こうぜんopen断然だんぜんfirmly漠然ばくぜんvague必然ひつぜんinevitable整然せいぜんorderly呆然ぼうぜんdumbfounded

Example sentences

「長い１日だったのでお疲れでしょう」「いいえ、全然」

"You must be tired after a long day." "No, not in the least."

Tatoeba #236907

あなたの作文は全然だめだというわけではない。

Your composition is not altogether bad.

Tatoeba #233276

われわれは自然の法則に従う。

We are subject to the laws of nature.

Tatoeba #191629

Kanji with the same radical

点無火熱爆為燃焦災焼照炎煙炭烈熟

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