What is the Kanji for "Narrow"?

If you are wondering what is the Japanese Kanji for "Narrow", you've come to the right place!

The Japanese Kanji for "Narrow" is "狭".

This kanji has 3 readings:

Its kunyomi readings are "Sema" and "Seba".

Its onyomi reading is "Kyou".

kunyomi readings are based on the pronunciation of native Japanese words, and onyomi readings are based on the Chinese pronunciation of the character.

If you visually breakdown this kanji, you can see is made up of 2 parts:

The kanji "犬" means "Dog" and can be read as "Ken" and "Inu". And The component "夹" .

Now, let's make sure you understand this kanji the other way around too.

What does the kanji "狭" mean in japanese?

"狭" means "Narrow".

Japanese School Students learn this kanji in Junior Highschool, while foreigners may learn this kanji in preparation for the JLPT N1 exam.

Here are some words that use this kanji:

狭い: "Narrow". The Japanese adjective '狭い (せまい)' means 'narrow'. This adjective is used to describe something that has a small distance between its sides. It is commonly used to describe spaces, rooms, paths, or other physical objects. For example: The hallway is narrow - (廊下は狭い). The road is narrow - (道路は狭い).

狭まる: "Narrow". The Japanese verb '狭まる (せばまる)' means 'to become narrow'. This verb is used to describe a space or area that is decreasing in size or width. It can also be used figuratively to describe a situation or perspective that is becoming more limited or constrained. For example: The road narrowed ahead - (道路が先細りになっていった)、As the deadline approaches, the options are narrowing - (期限が迫るにつれ、選択肢がせばまってきた).

狭める: "Narrow". The Japanese verb '狭める (せばめる)' means 'to narrow'. This verb is used to describe the action of making something smaller or more confined in size or space. It can be used with both concrete and abstract concepts. For example: They narrowed the road - (道を狭めた). The entrance was narrowed by the construction - (工事で入り口が狭められた).

To make really sure you learn this Kanji, I've prepared an interactive lesson for you. You are going to learn the readings and meanings of this kanji.

But first, you need to know a little bit about Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana and katakana are japanese syllabaries, this means that each character represents a syllable.

This are the characters you need to know for this lesson:

The hiragana "き" is read as "ki". The hiragana "う" is read as "u". The hiragana "せ" is read as "se". The hiragana "ま" is read as "ma". And The hiragana "ば" is read as "ba".

Heres a quick tutorial on how to use it. You'll be asked three type of questions: meaning, reading, and writing.

For meanings questions all you have to do is type the english meaning. If there is more than one meaning, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Reading questions you have to type the reading in romaji (roman letters, our normal alphabet) and it'll be automatically converted to hiragana if necessary. If there is more than one reading, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Writing questions some options will appear and all you have to do is select the correct ones.