Kanji quizzes for the joy of reading
How do you read 鰯 in Japanese?
Fish beside weak: which fish is it?
Make the words you meet in books your own, one quiz at a time. Discover Japanese kanji readings, meanings and usage with DuraRing.
Unfamiliar kanji? Scan and look it up.Explore the OCR & AI dictionaryHow do you read this in Japanese?
Read it as the Japanese name of a sea fish.
HINTShow hint
A familiar food fish that swims in schools. Three hiragana beginning with i.
More on radicals and this quiz’s stroke counts
Describe the shapes you see
You do not need to know the radical’s name. Try these searches for this quiz’s characters.
fish radical beside 弱
fish beside two bow-like shapes
fish radical 21 strokes small fish
These searches describe visual similarities, not formal radicals or character components.
鰯 has 21 strokes and the radical 魚 (fish). Radicals are dictionary classifications. The shape-based search phrases below provide other lookup clues.
鰯21 strokes / radical: 魚 (fish)
Stroke counts and radicals follow the Japanese dictionary Kanjipedia; other dictionaries may differ.
ANSWERShow answerHide answer
The answer is
いわし
iwashi
鰯
Understand the meaning
English translationSardines and related small fish
A Japanese name covering several small schooling fish, including sardines and anchovies.
See it in a sentence
港の近くで、鰯の群れが銀色に光っていた。A school of sardines shimmered silver near the harbor.
A way to remember
鰯 is a character created in Japan. Use its combination of 魚 and 弱 as a memory cue.
Sources：Kanjipedia: 鰯
The explanation draws on the sources below. Examples were written for this page.
Explore the word further
Using 鰯
鰯の群れ and 鰯を焼く place the fish in an observation scene or a meal. The surrounding verbs reveal the setting.
例：魚屋の店先に、銀色に光る鰯が並んでいた。
Silvery sardines were lined up at the fishmonger’s stall.
Reading and meaning in context
魚 and 弱 are useful shape cues. They are not a complete description of the animal; first recognize the fish name いわし.
References for this explanation：Kanjipedia: 鰯
Explanation checked on 2026-10-23. Additional examples were written by DuraRing for this page.
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