Meaning & readings
equip, provision, preparation
On’yomi ビ
Kun’yomi そな.える、そな.わる、つぶさ.に
Nanori びっ、びん
Origin
This character combines a person radical on the left with a sound hint on the right. The left component suggests the character involves human action or state, while the right component, pronounced something like "bi," gives a clue to how the character sounds. Over time, the combined character came to mean preparation or equipping oneself—the idea of a person being ready or furnished with what is needed. The specific meaning likely developed from the sense of putting things in order or making arrangements, which relates to the concept of being equipped.
Components
- 亻
- 備right
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 9
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #356 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05099