減 means “decrease, reduce”

へる · heru

Also: dwindle, decline

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

へる, へらす

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ゲン

JLPT N2 · Taught in grade 5 · 12 strokes

The story

Water (氵) and all (咸): picture the whole tank draining away, the level dropping day by day. 減る is to decrease, 減らす to cut down, 人口減少 is a shrinking population, and お腹が減った is a casual "I'm hungry."

Used in 減る (heru, to decrease), 減らす (herasu, to reduce), and 減少 (genshou, decline)

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

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