怪 means “suspicious, strange, monster”

あやしい · ayashii

Also: mystery, apparition

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

あやしい, あやしむ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

カイ, ケ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 8 strokes

The story

A heart (忄) beside a hand (又) pressing on the earth (土): picture sensing something odd stirring underground. 怪しい is suspicious, Godzilla is a 怪獣, a monster, and summer nights are for 怪談, ghost stories. Oddly, 怪我, けが, is just an injury.

Used in 怪しい (ayashii, suspicious), 怪我 (kega, injury), and 怪談 (kaidan, ghost story)

More from Ghosts & Demons

• 魂 soul
• 妖 bewitching
• 幽 secluded
• 呪 curse
• 冥 underworld
• 仙 hermit
• 霊 spirit
• 魔 demon
• 鬼 ogre
• 幻 illusion

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

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