在 in progress, an action taking place; in a place, be located; to exist, to be, to dwell; rural countryside; alright, acceptable, passable, ideal, desirable 亻,一,ナ,丨,土,

注意：このページには、一部の読者にとって不快または不適切な内容が含まれている可能性があります。
Note: This page may contain content that is offensive or inappropriate for some readers.

MingLiU:

Mincho:

Gothic:

在

Login Welcome!　Introduction
Glyphs missing from your font set may appear strange, or not at all. We recommend enabling East Asian language support.

On-yomi [ Toggle rōmaji ]

ザイ
ZA　I

Kun-yomi

あ(る
a　ru

Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]

亻

× person, rod head

　THE HEAD OF AN ANIMAL OR PERSON and VERTICAL, RECIPROCATING MOTION, ONE'S ROD, STALK OR STEM
　

一

イチ,イツ,ひと～ horizontal, array of items, reciprocating lateral motion, indicates width or extent, one segment, rod stalk or stem

　SIDE TO SIDE, BACK AND FORTH
　

ナ

× HTML entity: ナ hand (as an element); use of one's hand

　ROD with SLIDING HEAD
…or: ERECT ROD
　

丨

コン,シ,ジョ,ニョ,すす,しりぞ vertical, reciprocating motion vertically, rod stalk or stem while vertical

　TOP TO BOTTOM, BOTTOM TO TOP, UP-DOWN
　

土

ド,ト,つち soil, clay, earth, ground, night soil, feces, manure, ordure, opium

　FULL SCREWING ARRAY
…or: ARRAY of RODS UP
…or: ROD within FLESH SEAM
　

Meanings of elements

PERSON with ROD and SOIL, FECES
…or: HAND with RECIPROCATING MOTION VERTICALLY, ROD STALK OR STEM and with OPIUM
…or: HAND on ROD with SOIL, FECES

「Person with rod and feces」as in AN ACTION TAKING PLACE, NOW IN PROGRESS that also seems to capture some sarcasm of the Chinese sages inherent in many glyphs.
　「Hand with vertical motion」and「ground, soil, earth」is WHERE YOU ARE, or WHERE YOU RESIDE, the core of your EXISTENCE, being IN PLACE or better said as「in your place.」In the old days, folks moved from the caves into pit hole homes dug into soil or the side of a hill, so in order to climb down into and to climb up out of the pit hole residence, a「hand with vertical motion and the ground, soil」was necessary.
　Then again,「hand on rod with feces, soil」seems to indicate using a hand in order to PUT IN PLACE, PLACE INTO, to LOCATE and then RESIDE, DWELL, STAY AWHILE, perhaps tilling one's vegetable garden while adding a natural fertilizer to enrich the soil (see 存, 'making a deposit' as fertilization of a sort).
　Or:「hand in vertical motion」while in the「ground」simply describes passing the time while sitting in one's pit hole home alone out in the RURAL COUNTRYSIDE, with no towns or cities nearby for other entertainment.「Hand or person with rod and feces」seems to indicate getting the shitty end of the stick, in one way or another.

Modern definitions (that generally disregard history) …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may list only pigeonholed definitions, euphemisms, or meaningless mnemonics)
Chinese: (located) at; (to be) in; to exist; in the middle of doing something; (indicating an action in progress)
Japanese: country, countryside, outskirts, suburbs, situated in, resident in, to be, existing, alright, acceptable, passable, to have, to exist, to live, to be located, to be equipped with, to happen, to come about, wrong, groundless, false, improper, different, separate, unrelated, unexpected, surprising, location, whereabouts, hiding place, prior, past, old, before having died, to get, to obtain, to come by, to find, all that one has, all that there is, the whole, ideal, desirable, the way something should be
Unihan extended: be at, in, on; consist in, rest
EDRDG: exist; outskirts; suburbs; located in

Used within names (nanori)
あり

Always keep in mind that these glyphs were originally created by groups of clever old men as vulgar riddles and analogies for their own entertainment (see 籒 for that) and represented Chinese society many thousands of years ago, and not as a written or spoken language. If these glyphs had been intended for language use, the sages could not have possibly designed a worse system. Is it truly possible that all these glyphs started out as off-color jokes and puzzles? Yes! It is! Sex had no shame in ancient China. Why would it? And now, there is a cover-up. No one is suggesting these glyphs depict contemporary life in China, Japan, or anywhere else. This site describes glyph meanings, not people. These glyphs however, describe many and various things, including people, long before there were any notions of becoming politically incorrect. The question to be answered is, should these glyphs continue being used, by anyone, anywhere, for expressing language? (More...) Despite how bad the human world is today, do you actually believe that the so-called good old days were any better? Or they could only have been worse?

By the way, with a limited number of the same elements used by the sages again and again to form these glyphs, you should expect to find the same explanations again and again, as tedious as that may become, and as an inherent trait of any dictionary. This site explains the dual meanings of glyphs most often ignored by other sources that provide you with only the sanctioned definition, generally.