上手い

うまい

skilled, good

Mnemonic

Above the line and a hand, so a hand above everybody else’s. The same うまい as the horse’s ooh-ma, and the same noise out of you: he makes it look like nothing and you may as well not have tried: うまい.

Worth knowing

Also means tasty. 上手じょうず is the same two characters read differently, and is the politer word for skilled.

Built from

上

up, above

A mark sitting above the line.

手

hand

A hand with the fingers drawn out from the wrist.

Words sharing these kanji

上げる to raise, to increase 上 up, above 以上 ... or more, beyond 上がる to go up, to rise 立ち上がる to stand up 見上げる to look up 地上 above ground 手 hand 手伝う to help 相手 partner, opponent 勝手 selfish, self-centered 両手 both hands

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Emaki is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Kaishi 1.5k or its authors. The word, reading and meaning come from the Kaishi 1.5k deck, used with their permission. The mnemonic, the note and the kanji breakdown are original work, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.