Emaki · all 1,500 words

真剣

しんけん

serious, sincere

Mnemonic

A true blade and not a wooden one, which is the whole difference between practice and meaning it. A shin しん and Ken けん, and he listened like that: しんけん.

Worth knowing

大変 たいへん is serious as in a big deal. 真剣 is serious as in in earnest.

Built from

truth, real
A lid over something set down straight and true underneath it. Nothing altered on the way.
sword
刂 the knife radical on the right, drawn out to twice the length. A blade meant to be held in both hands.

Words sharing these kanji

photograph serious, earnest deep red truth, reality imitation, mimicry straight ahead, straightforward

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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.