飯 means “meal”

めし · meshi

Also: boiled rice

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

めし

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ハン

JLPT N4 · Taught in grade 4 · 12 strokes

The story

Food (食) turned and turned again until it is ready: rice steaming in the pot. In Japanese, "meal" and "rice" are the same word: ご飯 is breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the rice at the heart of all three.

Used in ご飯 (gohan, rice/meal), 朝ご飯 (asagohan, breakfast), and 晩ご飯 (bangohan, dinner)

Words with 飯

• 炒飯 (チャーハン, chaahan): fried rice
• 炊飯 (すいはん, suihan): rice cooking

More from Everyday Japan

• 洗 wash
• 同 same
• 円 circle
• 度 degrees
• 午 noon
• 名 name
• 物 thing
• 電 electricity
• 真 true
• 有 possess
• 何 what
• 映 reflect

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

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