weak, frail
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.
そして、少しずつ揺れが弱くなって、完全に止まりました。
Soshite, sukoshizutsu yure ga yowaku natte, kanzen ni tomarimashita.
And little by little, the shaking eased off, until it stopped completely.
天気予報では夜のうちに弱まるでしょうって。それを信じてる。
Tenki yohou de wa yoru no uchi ni yowamaru deshou tte. Sore wo shinjiteru.
The forecast said it should weaken overnight. I'm trusting that.
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-09-07 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0