汎 means “general, pan-, widespread”

はん · han

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ただよう, ひろい

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ハン, ブ, フウ, ホウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 6 strokes

The story

Water (氵) spreading over all (凡) of it: a flood that reaches every corner. 汎 is general or pan-: 汎用 is general-purpose, and a 汎用性の高い tool is one that works for almost anything.

Used in 汎用 (han'you, general-purpose), 汎用性 (han'yousei, versatility), and 広汎 (kouhan, wide-ranging)

More from Odd & Ordinary

• 庸 mediocre
• 緻 fine
• 異 different
• 微 slight
• 詳 detailed
• 偏 biased
• 奇 strange
• 駄 worthless
• 朴 simple
• 粗 coarse
• 凡 commonplace
• 冗 superfluous

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

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