暫 means “temporary, for a while”

ざん · zan

Also: temporarily, a while, moment, long time

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

しばらく

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ザン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 15 strokes

The story

A day (日) cut short (斬): a stretch of time snipped off. 暫 is for now, not forever: a 暫定 result is provisional, a 暫定政権 is an interim government, and the しばらく of しばらくお待ちください, please wait a moment, can be written 暫く.

Used in 暫定 (zantei, provisional), 暫時 (zanji, for a short while), and 暫く (shibaraku, for a while)

More from Moments & Eras

• 旬 in season
• 即 immediate
• 瞬 instant
• 恒 constant
• 曽 great- (generation)
• 徐 slowly
• 疾 disease
• 頻 frequent
• 暦 calendar
• 遍 everywhere
• 迅 swift
• 頃 around (a time)

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

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