鼠

See also: 鼡 and 臼

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

鼠 (Kangxi radical 208, 鼠+0, 13 strokes, cangjie input 竹難女卜女 (HXVYV), four-corner 7771₇)

1. Kangxi radical #208, ⿏.

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1527, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 48390
• Dae Jaweon: page 2063, character 23
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4772, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9F20

---

Chinese

trad.		鼠
simp. #		鼠
alternative forms		鼡

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 鼠
Shang	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (鼠) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
鼠	*hljaʔ
癙	*hljaʔ

Pictogram (象形) – a mouse or rat.

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 鼠

1. rat; mouse; rodent

   老鼠  ―  lǎoshǔ  ―  mouse, rat

2. cowardly; timid
3. (traditional Chinese medicine) scrofula; scrofulous

Compounds

(deprecated template usage)

---

Japanese

Kanji

鼠

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. mouse, rat, other similar rodent

Readings

• Go-on: しょ (sho)
• Kan-on: しょ (sho)
• Kan’yō-on: そ (so)
• Kun: ねずみ (nezumi), ねず (nezu), ね (ne)

Etymology 1

鼠 (mouse)	鼠 (rat)
鼠 (Muroidae: a common vole)	鼠（鼠色） grey

Kanji in this term
鼠
ねずみ Hyōgaiji
kun'yomi

Originally a compound of , meaning roughly “one who lives in hidden places”. The sumi changes to zumi as an instance of rendaku (連濁).

Noun

鼠(ねずみ) or 鼠(ネズミ) • (nezumi) 

1. (zoology) a mouse, a rat
2. general term for members of superfamily Muroidea, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, gerbils, and other similar rodents
3. short for 鼠色 (nezumi iro): the colour grey, sometimes more specifically a dark grey colour

Usage notes

Japanese does not generally distinguish between mice and rats, and both are commonly called nezumi. If a distinction is needed, speakers may use the adjectives 大きい (ōkii, “large”) or 小さい (chīsai, “small”), or may use the word マウス (mausu, “mouse”, borrowed from either German or English).

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as ネズミ.

Note that, although the Japanese term 子年 (​nezumidoshi, ​nedoshi) for The Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac does derive from this same nezumi term, it is not written with this 鼠 kanji.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 鼠色(ねずみいろ) (nezumi iro): (UK) grey, (US) gray
• 鼠衣(ねずみごろも) (nezumigoromo): simple grey clerical robes
• 鼠食(ねずみくい) (nezumikui): something that has been chewed on by mice or rats
• 鼠穴(ねずみあな) (nezumiana): a mousehole, a rathole

• 水畑鼠(みずはたねずみ) (mizuhata nezumi): the European water vole, Arvicola amphibius, formerly Arvicola terrestris.
• 火鼠(ひねずみ) (hi nezumi): fire rat

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
鼠
ねず Hyōgaiji
kun'yomi

Abbreviation of nezumi. Used in some compounds.

Noun

鼠(ねず) • (nezu) 

1. a mouse, a rat

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 鼠子(ねずこ) (nezuko): alternate name for 黒檜(くろべ) (kurobe): , an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae

• 銀鼠(ぎんねず) (ginnezu): silver-grey

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
鼠
ね Hyōgaiji
kun'yomi

Abbreviation of nezumi. Used in some compounds.

Noun

鼠(ね) • (ne) 

1. a mouse, a rat

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 子年(ねどし) (nedoshi): the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac

---

Korean

Hanja

鼠 • (seo)

• Eumhun:
  • Sound (hangeul): 서 (McCune–Reischauer: sŏ, Yale: se)
  • Name (hangeul): 쥐 서
    

1. (deprecated template usage) (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

---

Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 鼠 (thử)

1. (deprecated template usage) (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.