Meaning & readings
profit, advantage, benefit
On’yomi リ
Kun’yomi き.く
Nanori かが、と、とし、のり、み、りい
Origin
This character combines a grain plant (the left side) with a knife or blade (the right side). The image of harvesting grain with a sharp tool captures the idea of gain or profit — cutting crops at harvest time produces useful food and wealth. Over time, the meaning expanded from the concrete picture of agricultural benefit to the broader sense of profit, advantage, or anything that brings gain.
Components
- 禾
- 刂
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 18
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #203 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05229