Meaning & readings
matter, thing, fact, business, reason, possibly
On’yomi ジ、ズ
Kun’yomi こと、つか.う、つか.える
Nanori ろ
Origin
This character combines a mouth symbol (口) with a hand or tool component (⺕) to show someone using their mouth to give orders or direct work. The basic idea is that managing affairs or business involves speaking commands and coordinating action. Over time, the character broadened to mean any matter, thing, or task that needs to be handled. The hand-and-mouth pairing captures how human activity and communication create "business" or "things" that matter.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 口
- ⺕
- 亅
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 6
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #18 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+04E8B