字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

reparation, make up for, recompense, redeem

On’yomi ショウ
Kun’yomi つぐな.う

Origin

The character 償 combines a person radical on the left with the sound component 賞 on the right. The 賞 part mainly tells you how to pronounce the character, not its meaning. The sense of "reparation" or "make up for" comes from the idea of a person taking action to repay or restore balance — giving something of equal value to settle a debt or wrong. Over time, this person-based idea of settling accounts crystallized into the meaning we see today.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

償 17 strokes

Components

  • 亻 radical left
  • 賞 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 償い つぐない recompense; indemnity
  • 償う つぐなう to make up for; to compensate for
  • 償還 しょうかん repayment; redemption
  • 償却 しょうきゃく repayment; redemption
  • 代償 だいしょう compensation; reparation
  • 賠償 ばいしょう compensation; reparations
  • 弁償 べんしょう compensation; indemnification
  • 補償 ほしょう compensation; reparation

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
17
Kangxi radical
9
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#854 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0511F