戦 - WAR: When Weapons Clash

Readings & Meanings:

いくさ

セン

たたか（う）

war, battle

Common Usage:

戦争

戦

戦い

Examples:

イラク戦争に反対する。

戦に負ける。

男と男の戦い。

Translations:

I oppose the Iraq War.

They lost the war.

A man-to-man fight.

Bonus:

We've got the 戈 spear on the right. On the left we have a less common radical, "tan," 単, which is another weapon.

After you roll over Tan with your Rikaichan-enabled mouse, you're going to want to know why it says "one (layer), single." The answer is, I have no idea. Etymologically, the symbol comes from the Chinese symbol for a weapon to trap and beat small game. Maybe the Japanese adapted it to count numbers of animals killed on the hunt? No idea.

And, to head off another hypothetical question, don't even ask me about the three dots on top of Tan that looks the same as 学. It's one of those meaningless adaptations that came from simplifying another kanji. This was the original 単: 單.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/tnetwork/TAN.html#TAN05
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/kanji/kanji/i.htm