mix, blend, confuse
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.
質問が多すぎて、ルーカスの頭はもう混乱していました。
Shitsumon ga oosugite, Rūkasu no atama wa mou konran shite imashita.
There were too many questions, and Lucas's head was already scrambled.
受付は混んでいましたが、整理されていました。
Uketsuke wa konde imashita ga, seiri sarete imashita.
The waiting room was packed, but organized.
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