Meaning & readings
length, ten shaku, measure, Mr., Ms., height, stature, all (one has), only, that's all, merely
Origin
The character 丈 appears to combine a horizontal line (一) representing something basic or foundational with the component 乂, which historically depicted a person with arms and legs spread wide. Together, these elements suggest measuring a person's height or stature from head to toe. This visual idea of measuring a person's full length led to the character's meaning of length, height, and by extension, units of measurement like the shaku. The character came to be used as a respectful form of address—like Mr. or Ms.—possibly through the idea of measuring someone's worth or standing.
Components
- 一
- 乂
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 3
- Kangxi radical
- 1
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1375 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+04E08