protect, guarantee, keep, preserve
Came from Chinese. It usually shows up when the kanji is joined to another, forming a compound word.
It is Japanese. It usually shows up when the kanji stands alone or is followed by hiragana.
The order matters: it is what makes handwriting come out legible, and it is how dictionaries index the character.
Visual decomposition, for recognising and comparing — not always the character's origin.
Where it appears is highlighted — the translation doesn't always make that visible.
完璧です。保険証はありますか?
Kanpeki desu. Hokenshou wa arimasu ka?
Perfect. And your health insurance card?
「たぶん」?それってあんまり保証になってないよ…
"Tabun"? Sore tte anmari hoshou ni nattenai yo...
"Probably"? That's not much of a guarantee...
今度はちゃんと保管するよ、虫を絶対近づけないようにする。
Kondo wa chanto hokan suru yo, mushi wo zettai chikazukenai you ni suru.
Next time I'll store the coat properly, no moths getting anywhere near it.
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-10-22 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0