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徒

Today’s #kanji is #徒, which is listed under the radical of #ぎょうにんべん(彳). But according to my 大修館書店漢和辞典, its semantic element is 辵, which is the original form of #しんにょう with the meaning of “going and stopping,” and its phonetic element is 土, which has the meaning of soil. So can you guess what it means?

Meaning: walking, in vain
Reading: ト、あだ*、いたずら*、かち*、ただ*、むだ*

徒歩(ホ): n. walking, going on foot
徒労(ロウ): n. wasted effort, lost labour, a vain attempt
信徒(シン): n. a believer, a follower
生徒(セイ): n. a student (usually Years 7 to 12)
unlisted readings
徒(あだ): なadj. empty, useless, frivolous
徒(いたずら)に: adv. in vain, vainly, for mothing
御徒町(おかちまち): n. a place name
徒(ただ)の: exp. free, gratis, common, ordinary (more common to use the kanji 只)
徒(むだ): なadj. useless, fruitless, futile, ineffective, wasteful (more common to write it as 無駄)

  • ぎょうにんべん
  • しんにょう

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