Tell me more ×  I looked up both 沙 and 砂 in my 学研{がっけん}
漢和辞典{かんわじてん} today. It appears that they share the same list of
readings (サ、シャ、すな、いさご). I also see that some words can be
written with either kanji. Here are the senses my dictionary
lists for 沙:    1. すなはら。「[沙漠]{さばく}」    2. すな。いさご。    3.
水で洗い分けて取り除く。「[沙汰]{さた}」  The dictionary goes on to say that
meanings 1 and 2 are normally written with 砂. That makes sense
to me--I've never seen すな or さばく written 沙 or 沙漠. (Of course,
I'm only a student.)  So then, where the meanings overlap, is 砂
always used? I looked for the answer online, and I found a claim
that 沙 to mean sand or desert is mostly used in China, while 砂
is mostly used in Japan. Is this true? Is there any distinction
in meaning between e.g. 沙漠 and 砂漠? Are there times when I should
write these words with 沙?  I started wondering when I saw how
highly ranked 沙 was in the 文化庁 漢字出現頻度表 (Agency for Cultural
Affairs kanji frequency list), but I fear I've misled myself.
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