苗 means “seedling, sapling”

なえ · nae

Also: shoot

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

なえ, なわ-

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ビョウ, ミョウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 8 strokes

The story

Grass (艹) on a field (田): the Shuowen's picture of a young plant in the field. In spring rice 苗 go out into flooded paddies, and 苗字, a family name, reads みょう: most farmers had no official surname until the 1870s.

Used in 苗 (nae, seedling), 苗木 (naegi, sapling), and 苗字 (myouji, family name)

More from Paddy & Pasture

• 刈 cut
• 穀 grain
• 臼 mortar
• 墾 break ground
• 沃 fertile
• 稲 rice plant
• 牧 pasture
• 飼 keep
• 壌 soil
• 培 cultivate
• 肥 fertilizer
• 俵 straw bale

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

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