飢 means “starve, hunger”

うえる · ueru

Also: hungry

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

うえる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

キ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 10 strokes

The story

Food (飠) beside 几, the little table inside 机, desk: picture a table with nothing on it. 飢える is to starve, 飢餓 is starvation, and the word reaches past food too: 愛に飢える is to be starved for love.

Used in 飢える (ueru, to starve), 飢え (ue, hunger), and 飢饉 (kikin, famine)

More from Plenty & Want

• 餓 starvation
• 窮 cornered
• 飽 tire of
• 倹 frugal
• 貪 greedy
• 裕 ample
• 糧 provisions
• 剰 excess
• 乏 scarce

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

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