Meaning & readings
body, substance, object, reality, counter for images
On’yomi タイ、テイ
Kun’yomi からだ、かたち
Nanori なり
Origin
This character combines two visual ideas to mean "body." The left component, a simplified figure of a person, represents a human being. The right component shows a tree with its root, the base or foundation. Together, they suggest the idea of a person as a physical structure with a solid foundation—essentially picturing the body as the fundamental, substantial form that a person takes. Over time, this evolved to mean "body" more broadly, and later extended to abstract meanings like "substance" or "object."
Components
- 亻
- 本
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 9
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #88 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+04F53