Meaning & readings
director, official, govt office, rule, administer
On’yomi シ
Kun’yomi つかさど.る
Nanori つ、つか、つかさ
Origin
This character combines the sense of direction and containment. The box shape (口) represents a space or enclosed area like an office or administrative division. The horizontal line (一) on top suggests oversight or control from above. Together, these elements evoke the idea of someone positioned to rule over or manage a defined domain, which is why the character came to mean an official who administers or directs affairs within a particular office or jurisdiction.
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 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #759 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+053F8