Meaning & readings
Dr., command, esteem, win acclaim, Ph.D., exposition, fair
Origin
The character 博 combines a "ten" radical (十) on the left with a sound component (尃) on the right that hints at the pronunciation "haku." The left side originally suggested comprehensiveness or breadth, while the sound component anchors the reading. Over time, the meaning shifted to convey the idea of something broad and extensive—like broad knowledge or a broad command of a subject—which eventually came to mean "doctor" or someone who has won acclaim through deep expertise. The sense of "exposition" follows naturally from the breadth of knowledge being displayed.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 十
- 尃
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 24
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #794 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0535A