歳 means “age, years old, year”

さい · sai

Also: year-end, occasion, opportunity

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading): とし, とせ, よわい
On'yomi (Chinese reading): サイ, セイ

JLPT N3 · Taught in secondary school · 13 strokes

The story

Picture a harvest blade (戈) laid down (止) once a year: 歳 counts years, of crops and of people. 三歳 is three years old, 二十歳 has a reading all its own, はたち, and 万歳, "ten thousand years", is the cheer banzai.

Used in 三歳 (sansai, three years old), 二十歳 (hatachi, twenty years old), and 万歳 (banzai, hurrah)

歳 means “age, years old, year”

The story

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