海 - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)
Japanese 海
Simplified 海
Traditional 海
Stroke order
10 strokes

In Chinese, the bottom right component is 母 with 2 dots, yielding 海. In Japanese shinjitai, this component is simplified to 毋 (1 cross stroke), yielding 海 (氵+毎). Both forms are encoded under the same Unicode codepoint – see Han unification.

海 (Kangxi radical 85, 水+7 in Chinese and Korean, 水+6 in Japanese, 10 strokes in Chinese and Korean, 9 strokes in Japanese, cangjie input 水人田卜 (EOWY) or 水人田十 (EOWJ), four-corner 38157, composition ⿰氵每(GHTKV or U+FA45) or ⿰氵毎(J or U+2F901))

simp. and trad. 海

Wikipedia has articles on:

| | Old Chinese | | | -------------------------------- | --------------------- | | 脢 | *mɯːs, *mɯː, *mɯːs | | 挴 | *mlɯːʔ, *mɯːʔ | | 海 | *hmlɯːʔ | | 毐 | *ʔmɯː, *ʔmɯːʔ | | 呣 | *mɯ | | 拇 | *mɯʔ | | 母 | *mɯʔ | | 胟 | *mɯʔ | | 姆 | *mɯʔ, *mɯs, *maːʔ | | 畮 | *mɯʔ | | 踇 | *mɯʔ | | 苺 | *mɯs, *mɯːʔ, *mɯːs | | 莓 | *mɯs, *mɯː, *mɯːs | | 敏 | *mrɯʔ, *mrɯŋʔ | | 鰵 | *mrɯŋʔ | | 慜 | *mrɯŋʔ | | 毋 | *ma | | 梅 | *mɯː | | 酶 | *mɯː | | 鋂 | *mɯː | | 每 | *mɯːʔ | | 毎 | *mɯːs | | 痗 | *mɯːs, *hmɯːs | | 晦 | *hmɯːs | | 誨 | *hmɯːs | | 悔 | *hmɯːʔ, *hmɯːs | | 霉 | *mrɯl |

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *hmlɯːʔ) : semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 每 (OC *mɯːʔ).

Probably related to 晦 (OC *hmɯːs, “dark”); in numerous Zhou texts 海 is described as 晦 (Schuessler, 2007). Compare the parallelism in Chinese: 溟 (OC *meːŋ, *meːŋʔ, “ocean”) < 冥 (OC *meːŋ, “dark”).

STEDT compares 海 (OC *hmlɯːʔ) to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *muːŋ ~ r/s-muːk (“foggy; dark; sullen; menacing; thunder”).

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
ModernBeijing(Pinyin) hǎi
MiddleChinese ‹ xojX ›
OldChinese /*m̥ˁəʔ/ (dialect *m̥ˁ- > x-)
English sea
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 海
Reading # 1/1
No. 9283
Phoneticcomponent 母
Rimegroup 之
Rimesubdivision 0
CorrespondingMC rime 海
OldChinese /*hmlɯːʔ/

海

  1. sea; ocean
    好想去看海。 ― Hǎo xiǎng qù kàn hǎi. ― I really want to go and look at the sea.
  2. big lake
    洱海 ― Ěrhǎi ― Er Lake
  3. (Cantonese) wide river, especially the Pearl River
  4. (of containers, amount, etc.) big; large
    海碗 ― hǎiwǎn ― extra large bowl
    海量 ― hǎiliàng ― huge amount
    海投 ― hǎi tóu ― to send résumés to many companies; to use shotgun approach in job hunting
    海扁 ― hǎi biǎn ― (slang) to beat someone tremendously
    海咪咪 ― hǎi mīmī ― (slang) big boobs
  5. overseas; abroad
    海棗／海枣 ― hǎizǎo ― date palm
  6. (figurative) sea; abundance; infiniteness
    人海 ― rénhǎi ― huge crowd
    火海 ― huǒhǎi ― sea of flames
  7. (dialectal, colloquial) profuse; numerous
  8. (dialectal, colloquial) unrestrainedly; randomly; casually
  9. a surname. Hai (mainland China, Taiwan), Hoi (Hong Kong)
    海瑞 ― Hǎi Ruì ― Hai Rui (Chinese scholar-official of the Ming dynasty)

Dialectal synonyms of 海 (“sea”) [map]

Others:

Shinjitai 海
Kyūjitai[1] 海海or海+︀?
海󠄀海+󠄀?(Adobe-Japan1)
海󠄃海+󠄃?(Hanyo-Denshi)(Moji_Joho)
The displayed kanji may be different from the image due to your environment.See here for details.

海

(Second grade kyōiku kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 海)

  1. sea, ocean
  2. vastly gathered
  3. large, wide

Compounds

Kanji in this term
海
うみGrade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

⟨umi1⟩ → */umij/ → /umi/

From Old Japanese, theorized as descending from Proto-Japonic *omi.

Has been thought to have been derived from a compound. There are two leading theories regarding the ultimate derivation:

This is problematic phonetically because there is no known term having a related shift from /opo/ → /oː/ → /o/ → /u/, and semantically as there already exists a compound 大水 (ōmizu, “flood”).

海(うみ) • (umi)

  1. a sea, an ocean
    Antonym: 陸 (oka, riku)
    **海(うみ)**の中(なか)にはいろんな生(い)き物(もの)が暮(く)らしています。
    Umi no naka ni wa ironna ikimono ga kurashiteimasu.
    There are all sorts of creatures living in the sea.
    海(うみ)に行(い)こうよ！
    Umi ni ikō yo!
    Let's go to the beach!
  2. a lake
    Synonym: 湖 (mizuumi)
  3. (figurative) an object covering over a large area, as in 血の海 (chi no umi, “pool of blood”) or 火の海 (hi no umi, “sea of fire”)
  4. (planetology) a mare (dark surface of a celestial body, thought to appear like a sea)
  5. (calligraphy) in a 硯 (suzuri, “inkstone”), a reservoir where water is stored
    Synonym: 池 (ike)

Derived terms

海(うみ) • (Umi)

  1. a female given name
Kanji in this term
海
うなGrade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

From Old Japanese. Thought to be comprised of う (u-, stem indicating “ocean”) + な (na, ancient alternative form of the possessive particle の (no)).[6] The u- stem is also evident in 魚 (uo, “fish”) and 潮 (ushio, “salt water; tide”).

First cited to the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE.[6]

海(うな) • (una-)

  1. of the sea, of the ocean

Derived terms

Kanji in this term
海
わたGrade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

From Old Japanese.

Probably related to Korean 바다 (bada, “ocean, sea”); perhaps an ancient Koreanic borrowing into Japanese.

Also read as wada.[7]

海(わた) • (wata)

  1. (obsolete) sea, ocean

Derived terms

Kanji in this term
海
みGrade: 2
kun'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

Either cognate with 水 (mi, “water”), or an abbreviation of umi above.

海(み) • (mi)

  1. (obsolete) sea, ocean
Kanji in this term
海
かいGrade: 2
on'yomi
Alternative spelling
海 (kyūjitai)

From Middle Chinese 海 (MC xojX).

海(かい) • (kai)

  1. sea; ocean

  2. ^ “海”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2024

  3. ^ “海”, in 日本大百科全書：ニッポニカ (Nippon Dai Hyakka Zensho: Nipponica, “Encyclopedia Nipponica”)‎[2] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 1984

  4. ^ “海／うみ”, in 語源由来辞典 (Gogen Yurai Jiten, “Etymology Derivation Dictionary”) (in Japanese), 2003–2024.

  5. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

  6. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

  7. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

  8. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 “わた 【海】Paid subscription required”, in 日本国語大辞典 [Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]‎[3] (in Japanese), 2nd edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2000-2002, released online 2007, →ISBN, concise edition entry available here

From Middle Chinese 海 (MC xojX).

Historical Readings
Dongguk Jeongun Reading
Dongguk Jeongun, 1448 ᄒᆡᆼ〯 (Yale: hǒy)
Middle Korean
Text Eumhun
Gloss (hun) Reading
Hunmong Jahoe, 1527[5] 바다〮 (Yale: pàtá) ᄒᆡ〯 (Yale: hǒy)

Wikisource

海 (eumhun 바다 해 (bada hae))

  1. hanja form? of 해 (“sea; ocean”) [affix]

Compounds

海: Hán Việt readings: hải (呼(hô)改(cải)切(thiết))[1][2][3][4][5]
海: Nôm readings: hẩy[1][2][3][6], hải[1][2][7][4], hái[1], hơi[1], hãi[2], hỏi[2]

  1. Chữ Hán form of hải (“sea; ocean”).

  2. Nôm form of hẩy (“to toss; to throw”).

  3. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Nguyễn (2014).

  4. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Nguyễn et al. (2009).

  5. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Trần (2004).

  6. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bonet (1899).

  7. ^ Génibrel (1898).

  8. ^ Hồ (1976).

  9. ^ Taberd & Pigneau de Béhaine (1838).