敏 means “quick, sharp, sensitive”

びん · bin

Also: cleverness, agile, alert

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

さとい

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ビン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 10 strokes

The story

Every (毎) move backed by a hand ready to strike (攵): reflexes that never miss a beat. 敏 is quick and sharp: 敏感 is sensitive, 機敏 alert and nimble, and 過敏 oversensitive, like skin that reacts to everything.

Used in 敏感 (binkan, sensitive), 機敏 (kibin, alert/nimble), and 過敏 (kabin, oversensitive)

More from Learning & Reason

• 顧 look back
• 哲 philosophy
• 較 compare
• 塾 cram school
• 憶 memory
• 鑑 appraise
• 勘 intuition
• 寮 dormitory
• 儒 Confucian
• 稽 consider
• 検 examine
• 評 evaluate

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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.