tense, solid, hard, reliable
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.
僕の方がタナカより緊張してる気がする。
Boku no hou ga Tanaka yori kinchou shiteru ki ga suru.
I think I'm more nervous than you are.
ルーカスさんは緊張しながら座り、待合室の他の人たちを見ていました。
Rūkasu-san wa kinchou shinagara suwari, machiaishitsu no hoka no hitotachi o mite imashita.
Lucas sat down, nervous, watching the other people in the waiting room.
携帯のアラーム、聞いた?あれは緊急地震速報よ。
Keitai no araamu, kiita? Are wa kinkyuu jishin sokuhou yo.
Did you hear that alarm on your phone? That's the emergency alert.
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