Meaning & readings
circle, yen, round
Origin
This character pictures a circle or rounded enclosure. The box-like component on the left (冂) represents a bounded circular space, while the component on the right serves as a sound hint for the Chinese pronunciation "en." Over time, the character came to mean both the literal shape of a circle and the Japanese currency yen, which uses the same name. The strokes work together to suggest something complete and enclosed, which fits both the geometric idea of roundness and the notion of a whole monetary unit.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 冂
- 員V
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 4
- Kangxi radical
- 13
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #69 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+05186