Meaning & readings
eight, eight radical (no. 12)
On’yomi ハチ、ハツ
Kun’yomi や、や.つ、やっ.つ、よう
Nanori な、は、はっ、やち、やつ
Origin
The character 八 is a picture of something being divided or split apart. The two strokes spread outward like things separating, which likely inspired the meaning "eight" — in old Chinese counting systems, eight was associated with division and splitting. The character's simple, open shape made it easy to write and remember, so it became the standard way to write the number eight in both Chinese and Japanese.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (八).
Common words
- 尺八 しゃくはち shakuhachi; end-blown fippleless bamboo flute
- 十八 じゅうはち eighteen; 18
- 八方 はっぽう all sides; the four cardinal directions and the four ordinal directions
- 八つ やっつ eight
- 八丁 はっちょう skillfulness
- 八幡 はちまん Hachiman (god of war)
- 八重 やえ eightfold; octuple
- 八重桜 やえざくら double-flowered cherry tree; double cherry blossoms
Reference
- Strokes
- 2
- Kangxi radical
- 12
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #92 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+0516B