惨 means “miserable, tragic”

みじめ · mijime

Also: wretched, disaster, cruelty, harsh

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

みじめ, いたむ, むごい

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

サン, ザン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 11 strokes

The story

A heart (忄) beside 参, with three strands (彡) hanging down: picture a grieving heart with hair undone. 惨め is miserable, 悲惨 tragic, 惨事 a disaster with lives lost, and read ざん, 惨敗 is a crushing defeat.

Used in 惨め (mijime, miserable), 悲惨 (hisan, tragic), and 惨敗 (zanpai, crushing defeat)

More from Fire & Flood

• 墜 crash
• 遭 meet with (trouble)
• 洪 flood
• 薪 firewood
• 氾 overflow
• 濫 overflow
• 災 disaster
• 炎 flame
• 噴 erupt
• 炉 hearth

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

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