Meaning & readings
lord, chief, master, main thing, principal
On’yomi シュ、ス、シュウ
Kun’yomi ぬし、おも、あるじ
Nanori かず、ず、もん
Origin
The character 主 combines two visual parts to express the idea of supreme authority. The top component 亠 represents a roof or covering, suggesting something that shelters or presides over others. The bottom component 王 is the character for king or ruler. Together, the character shows a king or authority figure under a roof, visualizing the concept of a master or chief who stands at the head of a household or realm. This combination of "roof" and "ruler" naturally came to mean lord, master, or the principal thing.
Components
- 亠
- 王
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 3
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #95 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+04E3B