堪

JŌYŌ KANJI · Secondary school

withstand

withstand · endure · support · resist

12 strokesRadical 32U+582A
01

Readings

Official Jōyō readings in table order

On’yomi 音読み

カン

Kun’yomi 訓読み

たえる

Additional readings in the learning dataset

On’yomi

タン

Kun’yomi

たま.るこら.えるこた.える

These are outside the official Jōyō list above. A listed reading is not necessarily common in modern use.

02

Origin and meaning

A pictophonetic character with earth 土 and phonetic 甚; its original land sense was borrowed for bearing or enduring.

Earlier sense recorded in the sourceraised ground
Meanings in the learning dataset todaywithstand · endure · support · resist

Read the source entry ↗

03

Written form

No parenthesized form is given in the official Jōyō index for this character.

Dictionary radical土つち · earth / soil
Stroke count12May vary for alternate forms.
UnicodeU+582AModern character encoding, not an origin date.

Compare manuscript and printed examples in the HNG historical glyph archive ↗. Where available, its dated samples document written forms; they do not establish the first use of this character in Japan.

04

Examples in the official table

  • 堪忍,堪能
  • 堪える

Official notes

  • 「堪能」は,「タンノウ」とも。
  • ⇔耐える
05

When did it enter Japanese?

Chinese characters reached Japan through a long process of contact. Early inscribed objects and sixth-century Japanese names are documented; this is context for the writing system, not a first date for 堪.

堪 appears in the current Jōyō kanji table published on 30 November 2010. This records modern standard status, not the date the character was first used in Japan.

A dated first Japanese use for 堪 has not been verified in the sources attached to this entry.

Agency for Cultural Affairs: writing history ↗ · 2010 Jōyō notice ↗

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