尾 means “tail, end”

お · o

Also: counter for fish, lower slope of mountain

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

お

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ビ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 7 strokes

The story

Fur (毛) trailing behind a body (尸): a tail. 尻尾 is an animal's tail, 尾行 is tailing a suspect, 語尾 is the tail end of a word, and a mountain's 尾根, its long ridge, trails off like a tail.

Used in 尻尾 (shippo, tail), 尾行 (bikou, tailing someone), and 尾根 (one, mountain ridge)

More from Beasts & Wings

• 翼 wing
• 鶴 crane
• 巣 nest
• 虎 tiger
• 昆 insects
• 獣 beast
• 殻 shell
• 鶏 chicken
• 雌 female (animal)
• 蛍 firefly
• 牙 fang
• 蚊 mosquito

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

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