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.
Components
- 冂
- 人
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 4
- Kangxi radical
- 13
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #44 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05185