Meaning & readings

meeting, meet, party, association, interview, join

On’yomi カイ、エ
Kun’yomi あ.う、あ.わせる、あつ.まる
Nanori あい、い

Origin

This character combines a picture of a person () with an element meaning "say" or "speak" (云), creating the idea of people coming together to talk or communicate. When people gather and speak together, that's essentially what a meeting is — multiple individuals joining to exchange words and ideas. Over time, the character broadened to mean any kind of coming together or joining, whether for a formal assembly, a casual encounter, or an organized group. The visual composition makes sense: people plus communication equals meeting.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

6 strokes

Components

  • radical top
  • meaning part bottom

Common words

  • 宴会 えんかい party; banquet
  • 会う あう to meet; to encounter
  • 会員 かいいん member; the membership
  • 会期 かいき session (of a legislature)
  • 会議 かいぎ meeting; conference
  • 会計 かいけい accounting; finance
  • 会見 かいけん interview; audience
  • 会合 かいごう meeting; assembly

Reference

Strokes
6
Kangxi radical
9
Grade
Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#4 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 4
Unicode
U+04F1A