Meaning & readings
right
On’yomi ウ、ユウ
Kun’yomi みぎ
Nanori あき、すけ
Origin
This character appears to be a pictograph representing a hand or arm. In ancient writing, the shape roughly depicted an open hand or the right side of the body, which led naturally to the meaning "right" — as in the right hand or right direction. Over time, the strokes became more geometric and stylized, but the connection between the character's shape and the concept of rightness remained. The character is still used in modern Japanese to indicate the right side, direction, or hand.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (右).
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
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #602 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+053F3