Meaning & readings
old
On’yomi コ
Kun’yomi ふる.い、ふる-、-ふる.す
Nanori ふゆ
Origin
This character combines ten (十) above a mouth or container (口) to suggest something old. The image represents the passage of time—ten mouths or ten periods—accumulated together, which conveys the idea of age and antiquity. By stacking these elements, the character visually expresses how things become old through the accumulation of many passing periods or cycles.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #509 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+053E4