Meaning & readings
labor, thank for, reward for, toil, trouble
On’yomi ロウ
Kun’yomi ろう.する、いたわ.る、いた.ずき、ねぎら、つか.れる、ねぎら.う
Origin
This character most likely pictures a person bending or straining under effort. The shape suggests a human form contorted by physical exertion, which is why it came to mean labor, toil, and the tiredness that comes from hard work. Over time, the meaning expanded to include the reward or thanks you give someone for their effort — essentially acknowledging the trouble they've taken. The visual sense of strain and struggle at the root of the character connects naturally to all these related senses of work and fatigue.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (労).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 19
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #398 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+052B4