仙 means “hermit, immortal, wizard”

せん · sen

Also: cent

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

セン, セント

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 5 strokes

The story

A person (亻) who has gone off to live in the mountains (山): a 仙人, the Taoist sage said to become immortal and live on mist. 仙 also names the city of 仙台, and the narcissus is 水仙, the 'water immortal'.

Used in 仙人 (sennin, mountain hermit/immortal), 仙台 (sendai, Sendai), and 水仙 (suisen, narcissus/daffodil)

More from Ghosts & Demons

• 霊 spirit
• 魔 demon
• 鬼 ogre
• 幻 illusion
• 怪 suspicious
• 魂 soul
• 妖 bewitching
• 幽 secluded
• 呪 curse
• 冥 underworld

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

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