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Kanji for Phoenix

The kanji most commonly used for "Phoenix" are 鳳、凰、鵬.

Kanji that mean Phoenix

  • phoenix, male phoenix

    Also associated with imperial.

    Onyomi: fuu, hoh 14 strokes Jinmeiyō

  • phoenix

    Onyomi: koh, oh Kunyomi: ootori 11 strokes Jinmeiyō

  • roc

    Also associated with great bird.

    Onyomi: hoh Kunyomi: ootori 19 strokes Jinmeiyō

鳳 and 凰 are two halves of one creature. Together they write 鳳凰 (hōō), the East Asian phoenix, 鳳 conventionally the male bird and 凰 the female. Neither half is used alone in ordinary Japanese; the pair is what a reader recognizes, and it names things like the Phoenix Hall (鳳凰堂) at Byōdō-in.

The bird is not the Western phoenix. It does not burn and rise from its ashes. It is an auspicious creature, said to appear in an age of peace or under a virtuous ruler, so its meaning is good omen rather than resurrection.

鵬 is a different bird despite the dictionary gloss. It is the enormous bird of the Zhuangzi, usually rendered roc in English, whose wings darken the sky. Read hō or ōtori, it turns up in given names and in sumo ring names — 大鵬, 白鵬 — where the sense wanted is vast scale, not rebirth.

Before you use Phoenix kanji

If you want the phoenix, use both characters: 鳳凰. 鳳 or 凰 alone read as halves of a word. And note the creature is not the Western firebird — nothing about it means rising from ashes, so a phoenix chosen for rebirth will not be read that way.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →

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