双 means “pair, twin”

ふた · futa

Also: set, comparison, counter for pairs

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ふた, たぐい, ならぶ, ふたつ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ソウ

JLPT N2 · Taught in secondary school · 4 strokes

The story

Two hands (又又) side by side: a matched pair. The older form 雙 showed a hand holding two birds, where 隻 holds just one. 双子 are twins, 双方 is both sides, and 双眼鏡, binoculars, are a pair of lenses.

Used in 双子 (futago, twins), 双方 (souhou, both sides/both parties), and 双眼鏡 (sougankyou, binoculars)

More from Counts & Comparisons

• 片 one side
• 兆 trillion
• 匹 animal counter
• 軒 eaves
• 各 each
• 比 compare
• 個 individual
• 幅 width
• 般 general
• 諸 various
• 均 level
• 億 hundred million

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

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