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Kanji for Man

The kanji most commonly used for "Man" are 男、夫、郎.

Kanji that mean Man

  • man, son

    Also associated with vigorous person.

    Onyomi: dan, nan Kunyomi: o, otoko 7 strokes Jōyō

  • husband, man

    Also associated with worker.

    Onyomi: bu, fu, fuu Kunyomi: otto, sore 4 strokes Jōyō

  • man, son, official title

    Onyomi: roh, ryoh Kunyomi: otoko 9 strokes Jōyō

  • benevolence, humanity, kernel

    Onyomi: jin, ni, nin 4 strokes Jōyō

男 is the ordinary word: man, male. 男性 is the male sex, 長男 the eldest son, and it stands alone as otoko. If you want man with no complication, this is it. 夫 is specifically a husband — 夫婦 is a married couple, 夫人 a wife — so it names a role rather than a sex.

郎 is the character that ends male given names: 太郎, 一郎, 次郎. It is a name element more than a word, and 郞 is its older written form. 仁 is a Confucian term, benevolence and humaneness, and it reads as a virtue rather than as man, though it is a common given name (Jin, Hitoshi).

漢 is the trap. In modern Japanese it means Han or Chinese — 漢字 is Chinese characters, 漢方 traditional Chinese medicine. Its man sense lives only inside compounds, and the compounds a reader thinks of first are not flattering ones.

Before you use Man kanji

男 is the plain, safe character. Avoid 漢 alone: it reads as Chinese (漢字), and its man sense survives in words like 悪漢, villain, and 痴漢, molester. 郎 will look like the tail end of a name, and 仁 will be read as benevolence.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →

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