Meaning & readings
by means of, because, in view of, compared with
Origin
The character 以 appears to combine a person (人, the classifying component on the right) with a sound hint on the left that suggests the pronunciation "i." The meaning developed from the basic sense of a person using or employing something, which grew into the more abstract meanings of "by means of" or "because." Over time, the character's meaning shifted from the concrete action of using to the grammatical and logical relationships we see today, where it indicates how or why something happens.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 3+6+1
- 人
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 9
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #126 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+04EE5