鳥
とり
hepburn tori
bird
Part of speech · noun
Pattern visualization
Examples
- 空に鳥が飛んでいます。A bird is flying in the sky.
- 焼き鳥が大好きです。I love yakitori (grilled chicken skewers).
Collocations
鳥 (tori, bird)焼き鳥 (yakitori, grilled chicken skewer)鶏肉 (toriniku, chicken meat)小鳥 (kotori, small bird)七面鳥 (shichimenchou, turkey — "seven-faced bird")
Mnemonic
Tori — 鳥, bird. The sound is Yamato. The kanji 鳥 is Korean "jo" (as in 鳥類, 白鳥). A curious turn: 鳥 names both the bird in the sky and the chicken on the plate. 焼き鳥 (yakitori) reads literally: "grilled bird" — chicken skewers. One kanji holds the wild and the kitchen at once.
Quick check
Etymological reasoning behind 七面鳥 (turkey)?