Emaki · all 1,500 words

真面目

まじめ

serious, earnest

Mnemonic

A true face and a straight eye, three characters all saying the same thing about the man. Ma ま, gee じ, me め, and he means it: まじめ.

Worth knowing

真剣 しんけん is being in earnest about one particular thing. 真面目 is what somebody is like all the time.

Built from

truth, real
A lid over something set down straight and true underneath it. Nothing altered on the way.
face, surface
A pictograph, a face inside its outline.
eye
An eye stood on end, the lines of the lid across it.

Words sharing these kanji

photograph serious, sincere deep red truth, reality imitation, mimicry straight ahead, straightforward interesting, amusing surface, ground annoying, troublesome surface, aspect eye purpose, aim, object

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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.