All about the kanji, part 15: 同

Two shapes inside each other that are pretty similar; that's your best bet for memorizing the kanji for 'the same, equal, agree'.
The kun reading is どう, the on is おなじ (that is, 同じ).
Here are combinations of this kanji with one of the previously learned kanji:

• 一同 (いちどう) means 'all present', 'all concerned', or 'all of us'; while 同一 (どういつ) means identity, sameness, similarity, equality or fairness
• 大同 (だいどう) means 'largely the same'
• some easy ones: 同国 (どうこく) means 'the same country' or 'said country'; 同日 (どうじつ --note the rare じつ reading of 日) is 'the same day' and 同年 (どうねん) is 'the same year'
• 同人 is 'the same person', also colleague, comrade, 'said person', clique or fraternity.