Meaning & readings
price, cost, value
Origin
The character 値 combines a person classifier on the left with 直, which provides a sound hint for how to pronounce it. The left component 亻 signals that this character relates to human activity or interaction. The right side 直 (meaning "straight" or "direct") hints at the on'yomi pronunciation チ. Together, the shape came to represent the concept of price or value—what someone directly gives or asks for in exchange, tied to human commerce and transactions.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 亻
- 直
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 9
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #518 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05024