quake, shake, tremble, quiver
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.
土曜日の夜、地震がありました。結構強い地震でした。
Doyoubi no yoru, jishin ga arimashita. Kekkou tsuyoi jishin deshita.
There was an earthquake Saturday night. It was pretty strong.
念のためよ。余震が来るかもしれないから。
Nen no tame yo. Yoshin ga kuru kamoshirenai kara.
Just as a precaution. You never know if an aftershock is coming.
震度4だっただけよ。もっとひどいのも経験したことあるから。
Shindo yon datta dake yo. Motto hidoi no mo keiken shita koto aru kara.
That was just a shindo 4. I've been through way worse than this.
ほとんど同時に来ることもあれば、少し前に来ることもあるよ。震源の場所によるの。
Hotondo douji ni kuru koto mo areba, sukoshi mae ni kuru koto mo aru yo. Shingen no basho ni yoru no.
Sometimes it comes almost at the same time, sometimes a bit before. It depends on where the epicenter is.
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