音読み: エイ
訓読み: かげ
画数: 15
部首: さんづくり
Meaning
Shadow / silhouette / image.
- 影 — shadow; silhouette
- 影響 — influence; effect
- 面影 — face; looks; vestige; trace
- 陰影 — light and shade; shadows
- 残影 — afterimage
- 投影 — projection; casting a shadow
The top part 景 (scenery, brightness) combines with the radical 彡 (さんづくり, patterns and decoration). Together they suggest the light of a scene casting lines of pattern, forming a shadow or silhouette.
Picture a bright 景 (scene) — but with patterns 彡 cutting across it. What remains is not pure light, but a shadowed image. This makes it easy to remember 影 as “shadow, silhouette, image.”
Creates
影響 — influence; effect