素直

すなお

honest, straightforward

Mnemonic

Undyed thread with nothing done to it, and an eye looking dead ahead. No angle and no colour added. Sue すな, oh お, she says what she thinks and it costs her nothing: すなお.

Worth knowing

Not the same as 正直しょうじき. 正直 is not lying; 素直 is not being difficult, and it is a compliment about temperament.

Built from

素

plain, element

糸 thread at the bottom, undyed. The material before anything has been done to it.

直

straight, fix

目 an eye with a line running straight down out of it. Looking at a thing dead on.

Words sharing these kanji

素晴らしい splendid, excellent 素敵 lovely, superb 正直 honest, upright 直接 directly 直す to repair, to cure, to alter 直後 immediately after 真っ直ぐ 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.