字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

frozen, congeal, refrigerate

On’yomi トウ
Kun’yomi こお.る、こご.える、こご.る、い.てる、し.みる
Nanori こおり

Origin

This character combines a cold or ice indicator on the left with a sound hint on the right. The left side shows two vertical strokes from the water radical, which in this position specifically marks things related to freezing and cold. The right component provides a pronunciation clue—it sounds like "tou," which matches the on'yomi reading. Together, the character visually signals "something cold" while the right part guides you toward the correct pronunciation, creating a phono-semantic compound that means frozen or congealed.

凍 10 strokes

Components

  • 冫 radical left
  • 東 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 凍結 とうけつ freezing (e.g. water)
  • 凍死 とうし death from cold; freezing to death
  • 冷凍 れいとう freezing; cold storage
  • 凍る こおる to freeze; to become frozen
  • 凍える こごえる to freeze (of one's body); to be frozen
  • 冷凍庫 れいとうこ freezer
  • 冷凍食品 れいとうしょくひん frozen food

Related kanji

Same sound component 東
Same radical

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
10
Kangxi radical
15
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1284 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+051CD