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Kanji for Wife
The kanji most commonly used for "Wife" are 妻、婦、奥.
妻
Kanji that mean Wife
妻 (tsuma / sai) is the wife — the character shows a woman with a hand raised to her hair, dressing it in the old rite of marriage. It is the neutral, legal and humble word: one’s own wife is 妻 on every form and in polite speech; 夫妻 is “husband and wife” said of couples with respect. Curiously, kitchen Japanese borrowed it: the garnish beside sashimi is also called tsuma — the faithful accompaniment.
奥さん (okusan) — “the person of the interior” — is how you address or mention someone else’s wife; 奥 itself means the deep inner part of a house, a title from the age when the lady governed the household’s inner rooms. 婦 (fu) is the married woman generally — 主婦, the housewife; 夫婦 (fūfu), the married pair.
Modern Japanese quietly renegotiates all of these: many now prefer パートナー or the neutral 配偶者 (spouse); 家内 (“inside the house”) retreats year by year. The characters remember an architecture; the marriages have moved.
Words using Wife kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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夫妻
ふさい
husband and wife; married couple
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主婦
しゅふ
housewife; mistress (of the house); homemaker
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奥行き
おくゆき
depth; length
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妻子
さいし
wife and children
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夫婦
ふうふ
married couple; husband and wife; man and wife
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奥山
おくやま
remote mountain; mountain recesses
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人妻
ひとづま
married woman; another's wife
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婦人
ふじん
woman; lady; adult female
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奥地
おくち
interior; backwoods; hinterland
Before you use Wife kanji
妻 is the honest, humble word — "my wife" — and reads as devotion when worn; 愛妻 ("beloved wife") makes the devotion explicit, and 愛妻家 is the admiring word for a devoted husband. 奥 alone means "the interior"; 婦 alone reads generic. For a couple's set, 夫婦 (fūfu) is the pair itself.