JLPT N4 kanji. Readings, meaning, and how the character is built.
鳥 means bird, chicken. It is a JLPT N4 kanji written in 11 strokes, read とり or ちょう. It is a pictograph: the character began as a picture of the thing itself, so it does not break down into smaller parts. It appears in 小鳥 (small bird) and 鳥居 (Shinto shrine archway).
鳥 is written in 11 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.
鳥 breaks into 1 part.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 鳥 | とり | chicken (lit. / bird) |
| 小鳥 | ことり | small bird |
| 鳥居 | とりい | Shinto shrine archway |
These use 灬 too. The part keeps its job from one character to the next, which is what makes it worth learning once.
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