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Kanji for House

The kanji most commonly used for "House" are 家、宅、戸.

Kanji that mean House

  • house, family, lineage

    Onyomi: ka, ke Kunyomi: ie, uchi, ya 10 strokes Jōyō

  • home, house, residence

    Onyomi: taku 6 strokes Jōyō

  • door, house

    Also associated with capacity.

    Onyomi: ko Kunyomi: to 4 strokes Jōyō

家 (ie / ka / uchi) is the house — and the household, and the family line. The character is a roof 宀 over a pig 豕: livestock under shelter, prosperity at home, a farmhouse drawn from life. It reaches from the building (家を建てる, build a house) to the people (家族, family) to lineage and school — 家元 is the head of an artistic house, and ~家 suffixes a specialist: 作家, a writer; 専門家, an expert.

宅 (taku) is the residence as an address — 自宅 (one’s home), お宅 (your home, polite; also the origin of otaku, the person who never leaves it). 戸 (to / ko) is the door that stands for the household: census Japanese counts homes in 戸, and 江戸 (Edo) is the “bay door”.

屋 (ya) is the shop or roof — 本屋, the bookshop; 屋根, the roof — and 室 (shitsu) the room. Japanese builds all its architecture from these few bricks.

Words using House kanji

Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.

  • 国家 こっか Listen state; country; nation
  • 住宅 じゅうたく Listen residence; housing; residential building
  • 江戸 えど Listen Edo (shogunate capital; former name of Tokyo); Yedo
  • 家庭 かてい Listen home; household; family
  • 自宅 じたく Listen one's home; one's house
  • 井戸 いど Listen water well
  • 家族 かぞく Listen family
  • 在宅 ざいたく Listen being at home; being in
  • 戸惑い とまどい Listen being at sea; losing one's bearings; confusion

Before you use House kanji

家 is rich and warm — house, home and family in one character; nothing negative hides in it (the pig is etymology, not insult). If your meaning is "home" as belonging, 家 alone or 我が家 ("our home") reads perfectly. 宅 is administrative, and 戸 alone is just a door.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →

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