童 means “child, children”

どう · dou

Also: juvenile

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

わらべ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ドウ

JLPT N2 · Taught in grade 3 · 12 strokes

The story

Picture a child standing (立) in the village (里) lane: the village kids at play. 童 is a child: 童話 are fairy tales, 童謡 nursery songs, and the river imp 河童, the kappa, is literally a river child.

Used in 児童 (jidou, children/pupils), 童話 (douwa, fairy tale), and 童顔 (dougan, baby face)

More from Names & Introductions

• 幼 very young
• 姓 surname
• 介 mediate
• 児 child
• 齢 age
• 籍 register
• 仲 relationship
• 紹 introduce

Learn 童 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

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