Meaning & readings
separate, branch off, diverge, fork, another, extra, specially
On’yomi ベツ
Kun’yomi わか.れる、わ.ける
Nanori べっ
Origin
This character appears to depict the idea of separation through its visual structure. The left side shows a vertical line (representing something whole or unified), while the right side shows a knife or blade shape. Together, they suggest the action of cutting or dividing something into separate parts—just as a knife splits one object into two distinct pieces. Over time, this image of cutting or splitting came to represent the broader meanings of "separate," "diverge," and "another" or "extra."
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (別).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 18
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #214 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+05225