Visually Similar Kanji - 季 and 委

Read a thread that said this was the place to put suggestions for visually similar kanji and that @anon20839864 is the person to tag. Maybe it’s just me, but 季 and 委. Thanks!

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Hah I was literally just complaining to a friend about 右 and 石!

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My most hated two at the moment: 未 and 末

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未 and 夫 for me! It took me SO long to finally get those two separated in my head.

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宇 and 宅! 沢 and 況! 乙 and 己?

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季 and 委

I f*cked up these two Kanjis in my readings question, too.

edit: I also f up 委 with this Kanji 姿 …

edit 2: my way to distinguish the 2 Kanjis:

季: the son 子 is playing in the rice paddy 禾 when the season comes.
委: the mother 女 is working in the Agricultural 禾 Committee.

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Recent ones for me:
皆/習
老/考
谷/合
港/選

徹 (penetrate) and 撤 (withdraw) which have totally opposite meanings and the same readings and very similar radicals… Urgh.

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Having trouble with 動 and 働 right now… Somehow I keep skipping over the leader.

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The lefthand radical for 徹 has been penetrated.

The goal of both is to reach the finishing line (The “finishing line” is the first of the 2 horizontal strokes in the Kanji).

末 has already reached the end. 未? Not yet.

(the biggest line marks the location of the “runner” :roll_eyes:)

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Maybe like this (if the kanji is related to troop movement in a military context, no guarantees though): 徹 has 行 (to go) in it, like going in a forward direction to penetrate (enemy lines or something?). The nailbat is a hand 手, so you use your hand to pull back or withdraw your forces. Same reading hints that the other part is used phonetically, so the meaning should be guessable by the radical.

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Please email any similar kanji to hello@wanikani.com so I can add them! Posting in the forums is too easy to miss.

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Is probably my most mixed up.


Is a common occurance to mix up.

These are already listed as similar I’m sure.

Here’s a trick I used for those - 末 is longer at the top, towards THE END of the Kanji. Once I know that it becomes difficult to confuse the two - for 未 I don’t have a solid mnemonic (the jet is NOT YET long? I don’t know, whatever works). For the on’yomi readings these become easy if you know two very common words, 週末(shuu matsu, weekend) and 来週 (rai shuu, next week).

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Well, the short one is 未熟(みじゅく)Think 未 and 末 as a tree. 未 is NOT YET fully grown.

末 is a fully grown tree with a wide canopy. This tree has reach THE END of its life.

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I mean, I guess. But the lefthand radical for 撤 is being penetrated like WAY more.

Anyway, I just learned to remember them. Thanks for the tip though! Haha.

Hmm? Maybe we’re not looking at them the same way. The 徹 radical had a damn hole put through it! The 撤 radical is completely intact.

徹 You’ve got two leaders. You go forward 行く.
撤 You see a nailbat. You got threatened. You withdraw.

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Yeah, we aren’t. I see two lines getting totally nailed by a longer line. If that isn’t penetration, I don’t know what is.

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