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Kanji for Noodles

The kanji most commonly used for "Noodles" is 麺.

Kanji that mean Noodles

  • noodles, flour

    Onyomi: ben, men Kunyomi: mugiko 16 strokes Jōyō

麺 (men) is the character for noodles — the men of ramen (ラーメン), and the second character of 素麺 (sōmen, fine summer noodles). Its left half is 麦, wheat, which is the whole story: the character originally meant wheat flour, and came to mean the things made from it.

Japanese menus lean on it constantly: 麺類 is “noodle dishes” as a category, 太麺 thick noodles, 細麺 thin. Two famous noodles do without it — 蕎麦 (soba) leads with 蕎, the buckwheat plant, and うどん (udon) is normally written in kana, its kanji 饂飩 being nearly extinct.

麺 itself is a Jōyō character, plain and appetising, with no meaning beyond the food.

Before you use Noodles kanji

麺 means noodles and nothing else — a Japanese reader will assume you really, really like ramen. There is no hidden sense to worry about; the only question is whether you want a food word in permanent ink.

Other meanings to explore

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