甚 means “extremely, very great”

はなはだ · hanahada

Also: tremendously, very, great, exceedingly

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

はなはだ, はなはだしい

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ジン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 9 strokes

The story

The Shuowen reads 甚 as sweetness (甘) with a mate (匹): pleasure taken too far. 甚だ is "extremely" in stiff prose, 甚大な被害, enormous damage, is a phrase of disaster news, and 幸甚です, "I would be most grateful", closes formal letters.

Used in 甚だ (hanahada, extremely), 甚大 (jindai, enormous, of damage), and 幸甚 (koujin, most grateful, in letters)

More from Formal Words

• 但 however
• 且 moreover
• 僅 only
• 及 reach
• 故 cause
• 為 do
• 致 bring about
• 是 right
• 須 must
• 殊 especially
• 尚 still
• 那 that

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