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Kanji Detail for 才 - "talent, ability"

才

  • Meaning

    才 means "talent, ability." Also associated with only.

    1. Talent - Innate ability; natural aptitude.

    2. Ability - Skill; capability; intelligence.

    3. Only - Barely; just; merely. Same as 纔.

    4. Age - Used in place of "sai" to indicate years of age.

  • Words using 才

    • 才能 さいのう Listen talent; ability
    • 天才 てんさい Listen genius; prodigy; natural gift
    • 秀才 しゅうさい Listen bright person; talented student; prodigy

  • Four-character idioms with 才

    • 博学多才 はくがくたさい Listen wide knowledge and versatile talents
    • 博識多才 はくしきたさい Listen wide knowledge and versatile talents; profound learning and varied attainments
    • 和魂洋才 わこんようさい Listen Japanese spirit with Western learning
    • 和魂漢才 わこんかんさい Listen the Japanese spirit imbued with Chinese learning
    • 士魂商才 しこんしょうさい Listen having a samurai's spirit and a merchant's business sense
    • 才子佳人 さいしかじん Listen talented man and a beautiful woman; well-matched pair; wit and beauty

  • Origin of 才

    A pictograph of a young shoot breaking through the ground — growth that was in the seed from the beginning. Talent, in this character, is what you arrived with.

    How to remember it: A sprout cracking the earth: the push was inside the seed all along — inborn talent.

    Sources: en.wiktionary.org · mojinavi.com

  • Tattoo check: 才

    • Verified meaning: talent, ability
    • Official Jōyō kanji — a standard character every Japanese reader recognises
    • Used in real Japanese given names (read あるす, かしこ, さい, さいさき)
    • Also carries these associations: only

    A single kanji rarely maps one-to-one onto an English word. Read the meanings and associations above as a set — a character that fits the dictionary definition can still carry a connotation you did not intend.

  • Name readings of 才

    Given names 才(あるす)Listen 才(さい)Listen 才(みつ)Listen

    Surnames 才(かしこ)Listen 才(さいさき)Listen

  • Compare with other kanji that mean the same thing:

  • Dictionary Citations

    The meaning above is based on the following sources:

    KANJIDIC2 A comprehensive Japanese-English kanji dictionary

    genius; years old; cubic shaku

    Unihan Unicode Han Database for CJK characters

    talent, ability; just, only

    CC-CEDICT A Chinese-English dictionary

    ability; talent; sb of a certain type; a capable individual; then and only then; just now; (before an expression of quantity) only

    Make Me a Hanzi Open-source Chinese character data

    ability, talent, gift; just, only

    XSZD Xuéshēng Zìdiǎn (學生字典) - Student's Dictionary

    Ability. Being capable is 才. Such as 雄才大略. Xie Lingyun said Cao Zhi had "eight bushels of talent." Hence, those learned and capable are called 人才, 才子. The old system had the Xiucai examination. In Han, avoiding Emperor Guangwu's name taboo, it was also called 茂才. In Ming-Qing, students were so called. | Quality. Like saying material. Such as 棟梁才, 厮養才. Commonly written as 材. | Interchangeable with 纔. Just now. Such as 剛才, 才可.

  • Onyomi

    tip

    sai(サイ) サイ

  • Kunyomi

    tip
    none

  • Strokes

    tip

    3 strokes

  • Radical

    tip

    手 扌 (te・tehen)

  • Related Keywords

    talent ability only age quality wisdom gift aptitude brilliance competence creativity expertise flair genius ingenuity mastery natural potential proficiency skill

Sentences including 才

  • He came to tokyo at the age of three.

  • He is a genius in a sense.

  • He thought that he was a genius.

  • What a genius he is !

  • Are you ten years old?

  • We thought of him as a genius.

  • He is able in business.

  • He is said to be a genius.

  • Her son is a genius.

  • She is eight.

Sentences from Japanese classical masterpieces

More kanji with the radical 手 扌 (te・tehen)

See all kanji with this radical →

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