体 — how to write the kanji for “body”

体 means “body”, “substance” and “object”; it is a JLPT N4 kanji, taught in second grade in Japan. In newspapers it is one of the hundred most used kanji (88th). KANJIDIC2 gives it 2 on readings and 2 kun readings, so the word decides how you say it. Its parts sit side by side: 亻 (“person”), strokes 1–2; 本 (“book”), strokes 3–7, each finished before the next. On its own it is the word karada, “body; torso”. Its common words take the reading tai: 体制 (“order”), 全体 (“whole”), 団体 (“group”) and 具体的 (“concrete”). Chinese reads it tǐ, “body”, at HSK 2.

Strokes

7

JLPT

N4

Radical

人 (“person”)

On

タイ, テイ

Kun

からだ, かたち