Meaning & readings
inside, within, between, among, house, home
On’yomi ナイ、ダイ
Kun’yomi うち
Nanori いと、ただ、ち、のち
Origin
This character combines a box or enclosure (the outer strokes) with a person inside it. The image of a person within a bounded space directly conveys the idea of something being "inside" or "within." The box represents a container or boundary, while the person shows what's contained in it. Over time, this concrete picture of interior space broadened to mean "inside," "home," and related concepts of things that are enclosed or sheltered.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 冂
- 人
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 4
- Kangxi radical
- 13
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #44 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05185