Meaning & readings
sham, temporary, interim, assumed (name), informal
On’yomi カ、ケ
Kun’yomi かり、かり-
Origin
The character 仮 combines a person marker on the left (亻) with the sound hint 反 on the right. The 反 component tells you roughly how to pronounce the character, but doesn't directly add meaning. The sense of "temporary" or "sham" comes from the overall character — you're looking at a person in a makeshift or assumed state, something not permanent or genuine. Over time, this character came to mean anything interim, provisional, or informal.
Components
- 亻
- 反
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 9
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1039 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+04EEE