七
しち · shichi · JLPT N5 · noun
seven
7️⃣ shichi sounds like she-chee: SHE has a CHEEtah with seven spots
七 is the Sino-Japanese reading of seven, borrowed from Middle Chinese (compare Mandarin qī). Because shichi contains shi, a sound shared with death (死), speakers often swap in the native reading nana.
七 — single horizontal stroke 一 + vertical hook 乚
Originally a pictograph showing a horizontal line cut by a vertical stroke, representing the act of cutting — the early meaning of 'cut' (later written 切). It was borrowed phonetically to write the number seven, and that borrowed numerical meaning became standard, while the original 'cut' sense moved to 切.