nose
nose
🇰🇷
Korean
bi
🇯🇵
On'yomi
bi
Kun'yomi
hana
はな
🇨🇳
Pinyin

It's made of..

Several parts combine into one character.

2 components
above
Oneself
below

The stroke order..

14 strokes · 9.7s
This character..

鼻 has one of the most charming etymologies in the script. The original character for "nose" was 自 — a stylized front-view picture of a nose. Speakers would touch their own nose to indicate "me, myself", and over centuries 自 drifted to mean "self / from / by oneself" exclusively. Left without a "nose" word, scribes built a new one: they kept 自 (the original nose-picture) on top, then added 田 (field — actually a phonetic indicator) and 廾 (a base/stand), producing 鼻. The new character preserves the old picture inside itself like a fossil.

Identical across 繁體 / 新字体 / 简体.

Mandarin: bí, rising 2nd tone. 鼻子 (bízi) is the everyday word for nose. 鼻孔 (bíkǒng, nostril — "nose hole"), 鼻血 (bíxuè, nosebleed). The verb 流鼻涕 (liú bítì, "to have a runny nose") is a kid-vocab classic.

Japanese: on-reading ビ (bi) appears in 耳鼻科 (jibika, ENT clinic) and 鼻音 (bion, nasal sound — phonetics). The kun-reading はな (hana) is the everyday word — 鼻 (hana, nose). Watch for the homophone trap: 花 (hana, flower) is identical in spoken Japanese, distinguished only by context and pitch accent. Also 鼻血 (hanaji, nosebleed) — note the rendaku voicing.

The expression 鼻が高い (hana ga takai, "the nose is tall") means proud — the same metaphor English uses with "stuck-up" but with a positive spin in Japanese.

Memory aid: 自 (original nose picture) on top, 廾 (a base) on the bottom — a nose mounted on a small pedestal. The character protects its own etymology.

Where you'll meet it..

🇰🇷Korean vocabulary
  • 耳鼻科이비과 · ibigwaotorhinology
  • 鼻音비음 · bieumnasal sound
🇯🇵Japanese vocabulary
  • 鼻血はなぢ · hanajinosebleed
🇨🇳Chinese vocabulary
  • 鼻子bízinose
  • 鼻孔bíkǒngnostril

Nearby characters..

earearmouthmoutheyeeye
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