Fix please: 是 kanji meaning and readings

Could you please review the meaning and readings of the 是 kanji? None of the vocabularies that I consult with translate the meaning of this kanji as ‘absolutely’. Moreover, it has another reading シ

Please, refer to:

http://www.sp.cis.iwate-u.ac.jp/icampus/u/akanji.jsp?k=是

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Both links you posted come from the same source (jmdict/edict) and their first meaning is “just so” - which is the same meaning implied by WK.

Despite usually being in written in kana, its most common usage is 是非 → ぜひ.
Meaning: Absolutely! (I will come to your wedding)

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Which language are we learning here? Because if it’s Japanese, what’s most important is there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen シ used in modern Japanese.

You can email hello@wanikani.com.

Interestingly, I did this for the absolutely kanji as well because the radicals selected were “day” and “correct”, even though “day” and “coat rack” are better. In exchange for correct ing them, they will absolutely be shipping my coat rack via zeppelin any day now. Then again, it might be a while before they have the chance to do the appropriate content update and server maintenance.

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They actually are likely to refuse to add シ as they purposefully don’t add particularly rare readings. And I can’t even find a single word in 大辞林 that uses it.

What are “kanji translations” anyway? They just paraphrase what the kanji contributes in the “words” it forms, and in 是非 it adds something like “absolutely”, at least a “just” or “right” way.

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“Absolutely” does not appear to be one of the official meaning on 漢字辞典

So, yeah, I also think it should be corrected.

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Isn’t it academic as the kanji is never used singularly anyway?

Not sure what you mean by that… even when things don’t exist as solo-kanji words they still have meanings.

I’m not disputing that, I’m just saying, for our purposes learning the meanings of solo kanji that never appear in the wild is purely academic.
Especially since a not insignificant portion of kanji are used as phonetics rather than for their meanings.

This might not absolutely be the case with 是 as there are a few words that use it for its meaning, but then again, there is not a great number of them.

It does appear quite often alone in the wild though.
是 (これ)“this”
Of course, the kana version of that word is much more frequent, but I have seen it written like that.

More to the point, I want to be able to trust WK 100% on kanjis. Radicals can have goofy meanings, that’s fine, I know they are mostly here for mnemonics. But kanjis are “real” and have official meanings. I don’t want to have to second guess what WK says all the time.

What do you mean by “official meaning”? Approved by the inventor of Japanese?

WK includes lot of “rough and fast” translations and never includes all meanings, you have to check the full meanings anyway. It is good for kanji recognition and getting a rough feeling for the meaning, though.

Approved by the people who test 漢検
I don’t mind rough, I don’t mind fast, I don’t mind incomplete.
I mind wrong.

I never knew 是非 → ぜひ means Absolutely! A Japanese told me it means like you really really really want to do it. So when someone invited you to a wedding, saying ぜひ means you really really really want to come. I guess “Absolutely” means the same but different nuance. Not sure it this helps. :smiley:

Its more like offering or accepting something without the expectation of “no” being an answer I guess.
Its also fairly polite.

“absolutely” is fine as meaning for 是非, yes.
But not for the kanji 是 (which is the one we were talking about).

Friendly reminder you can always add a user synonym because I don’t think they’re gonna change it since so few people seem to care.

Actually, this would require a userscript to mark it wrong if you enter “absolutely”. :thinking:
Even if you add a synonym, WK will still accept the original meaning.

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