Kanji 弱

音読おんよみ: ジャク・ニャク

訓読くんよみ: よわい・よわる・
よわまる・よわめる

画数かくすう: 10

部首ぶしゅ: ゆみ（弓）

Meaning

Weak / Feeble / Weaken

Conjugation
Tap for 弱める (weaken) Tap for 弱まる (grow weaker)
  • 弱点じゃくてん — weak point
  • 弱気よわき — timid; faint-hearted
  • 弱者じゃくしゃ — the weak; disadvantaged
  • 強弱きょうじゃく — strength and weakness
  • 弱体じゃくたい — weakness; decline
More examples - tap to expand
  • 弱年じゃくねん — youth / early years
  • 貧弱ひんじゃく — poor / meager
  • 虚弱きょじゃく — frailty / weak constitution
  • 衰弱すいじゃく — debility / emaciation
  • 弱輩じゃくはい — inexperienced person (humble)

弱 is built from repeating bow-like shapes (弓), suggesting something that has lost tension or strength. From that image, it came to mean “weak,” “fragile,” or “to weaken.”

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