贈 means “give, present”

おくる · okuru

Also: presents, send, give to, award to

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

おくる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ゾウ, ソウ

JLPT N2 · Taught in secondary school · 18 strokes

The story

Shells (貝), the money of ancient China, stacked layer on layer (曽): wealth given away. 贈る is to give a gift, unlike plain 送る, to send, and Japan has two gift seasons, お中元 in summer and お歳暮 at the end of the year.

Used in 贈り物 (okurimono, gift), 贈る (okuru, to give as a gift), and 寄贈 (kizou, donation)

More from Getting It There

• 荷 load
• 符 token
• 導 guide
• 述 state
• 絡 connect
• 届 deliver
• 駐 park

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

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