員 · member

JLPT N4 kanji. Readings, meaning, and how the character is built.

員 means member. It is a JLPT N4 kanji written in 10 strokes, read いん. It is built from 2 parts: 口 (mouth), 貝 (shellfish). It appears in 店員 (clerk) and 公務員 (government worker / public servant).

筆順 · Stroke order

員 is written in 10 strokes, in the order numbered below. Order matters: it is what makes handwriting legible, and it is how the character is looked up in a paper dictionary.

解字 · What it is made of

員 breaks into 2 parts.

• 口 semantic mouth · top carries the meaning
• 貝 other shellfish · bottom component

Words that use 員

Word	Reading	Meaning
店員	てんいん	clerk
公務員	こうむいん	government worker / public servant
工員	こういん	factory worker

Built from the same parts

These use 口 or 貝 too. The part keeps its job from one character to the next, which is what makes it worth learning once.

• 向to face
• 合to fit
• 事thing
• 味taste
• 問question
• 言say
• 買to buy

Practise 員

Sumi teaches the character before it tests you: stroke order animated, the breakdown above shown as a pull-apart X-ray, then spaced review. Free, in your browser, no signup.

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