彩 means “color, decorate”

いろどる · irodoru

Also: coloring, paint, makeup

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

いろどる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

サイ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 11 strokes

The story

A hand (爫) picking from a tree (木), then three strokes of shimmer (彡): picture gathering flowers to paint with. 彩る is to color or decorate, a bento is judged by its 彩り, and 多彩 means richly varied.

Used in 彩る (irodoru, to color/decorate), 色彩 (shikisai, color/hue), and 多彩 (tasai, varied/colorful)

More from Shades & Dyes

• 丹 red
• 玄 dark
• 淡 pale
• 朱 vermilion
• 紺 navy blue
• 藍 indigo
• 斑 spot
• 褐 brown
• 瑠 lapis lazuli
• 璃 lapis lazuli
• 鮮 vivid
• 染 dye

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

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