Meaning & readings
reliant, depend on, consequently, therefore, due to
Origin
The character 依 combines a person radical on the left with the character for clothes on the right. The clothing component serves as a sound hint, suggesting the pronunciation rather than adding to the meaning. The overall image suggests a person leaning or relying on something, much as one might depend on clothing for support or comfort. Over time, this visual idea of a person supported by or clinging to something developed into the abstract meanings of relying on, depending on, or following from something.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 亻
- 衣
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 9
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #906 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+04F9D