Meaning & readings

forces, energy, military strength

On’yomi セイ、ゼイ
Kun’yomi いきお.い、はずみ
Nanori

Origin

This character combines the idea of position or posture with power. The top component represents how something is positioned or situated, while the bottom component is the character for physical force or strength. Together they create the concept of momentum or force arising from a particular arrangement—like how the way soldiers are lined up gives them military power, or how the way something is positioned creates energy or drive. The combination captures not just raw strength, but strength that comes from strategic positioning or arrangement.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

13 strokes

Components

  • meaning part top
  • radical bottom

Common words

  • 威勢 いせい power; might
  • 気勢 きせい fervour; fervor
  • 形勢 けいせい condition; situation
  • 攻勢 こうせい offensive (movement); aggression
  • 国勢 こくせい state of a country (population, resources, etc.); condition of a country
  • 姿勢 しせい posture; pose
  • 情勢 じょうせい state of things; state of affairs
  • 勢い いきおい force; vigor

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
19
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#260 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+052E2