Meaning & readings
concurrently, and, beforehand, in advance
Origin
This character appears to show a person (the vertical stroke on the left) holding or carrying two things at once, represented by the doubled element on the right. The visual idea of grasping multiple objects simultaneously led to the meaning "concurrently" or "at the same time." Over time, this expanded to mean doing things together or in advance, since managing multiple tasks requires planning ahead. The character's shape reinforces the sense of combining or holding together different elements.
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 (兼).
Common words
- 兼任 けんにん serving concurrently as; holding the additional post of
- 兼務 けんむ serving concurrently as; concurrently holding the position of
- 兼業 けんぎょう pursuing as a side business; doing in addition to one's main work
- 気兼ね きがね constraint; reserve
- 兼ねる かねる to be unable to; to find difficult (unpleasant, awkward, painful) to do
- 兼ね合い かねあい equilibrium; good balance
- 兼ね備える かねそなえる to have both; to possess both
- 待ち兼ねる まちかねる to wait impatiently for
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 12
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1164 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0517C