Meaning & readings
lowly, base, vile, vulgar, despise
On’yomi ヒ
Kun’yomi いや.しい、いや.しむ、いや.しめる
Origin
This character appears to picture a person in a bent or crouched posture. The lower part suggests someone bowing down or lowering themselves, which naturally came to represent the idea of being low, base, or vulgar. Over time, the visual image of physical lowering expanded to mean moral or social lowering — treating someone or something as inferior or despicable. The shape captures the physical gesture associated with shame or degradation.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (卑).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 24
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #2003 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05351