Meaning & readings
whole, entire, all, complete, fulfill
On’yomi ゼン
Kun’yomi まった.く、すべ.て
Nanori たけ、まさ
Origin
This character combines the idea of a person (人) above a king or ruler (王). The character pictures a person in a position of wholeness or completeness under authority — originally suggesting someone who is whole, unbroken, or fully intact in service to a ruler. Over time, the meaning shifted to express the broader idea of completeness and totality: when something is "whole," nothing is missing from it. The shape essentially shows a complete, unified relationship between a person and authority, which came to represent the concept of "all" or "entire."
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 11
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #75 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05168