Meaning & readings
bestow, participate in, give, award, impart, provide, cause, gift, godsend
Origin
This character appears to be a pictographic representation of two hands or arms coming together. The three strokes form a simplified image suggesting the gesture of giving or exchanging something between people. The idea of hands meeting or extending toward each other naturally captures the meaning of "bestow" or "give"—the basic human action of passing something from one person to another. Over time, this visual foundation expanded to include related meanings like "participate in" and "provide," all rooted in the original concept of hands joined in the act of giving or sharing.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (与).
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
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #308 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+04E0E