Meaning & readings
generation, world, society, public
On’yomi セイ、セ、ソウ
Kun’yomi よ
Nanori とし、ゆ、ゆき
Origin
The character 世 pictures a vertical line (人, meaning person or people) crossed by a horizontal line, representing the passage of time or the flow of generations. The stacked or layered appearance suggests people continuing through different time periods, one after another. This visual of continuous succession naturally came to mean a generation, and by extension, all the people living in an era — hence the meanings of world and society. The character essentially shows how individuals stack up across time to form the broader concept of a generation or epoch.
Components
- 一
- 丨
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 1
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #135 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+04E16