黒

くろ · kuro · JLPT N5 · noun

black

🐦‍⬛ kuro sounds like crow — and a crow is black

Say kuro quickly and it is nearly the English word crow, the classic black bird. Etymology backs the colour: the kanji 黒 shows soot gathering above a fire (the four dots at the bottom are flames), so black = soot.

More Japanese words · How Japanese works