Emaki · all 1,500 words

壊す

こわす

to break, to destroy, to smash

Mnemonic

Somebody has put the thing back to being a pile of bits, on purpose or otherwise. The same ware わす as 壊れる, except this time a hand did it, and it was your phone: こわす.

Worth knowing

壊れる こわれる is a thing breaking by itself. 壊す is somebody breaking it.

Built from

break, destroy
土 earth on the left, and whatever had been standing on it going back to being nothing but earth.

Words sharing these kanji

breaking, destruction to break, to fall apart

This is one of 1,500 words in Emaki, a free spaced repetition trainer with a written mnemonic on every card.

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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.