Meaning & readings
same, agree, equal
On’yomi ドウ
Kun’yomi おな.じ
Origin
This character combines the idea of enclosure with the concept of sameness. The box-like frame on the outside (冂) represents a container or boundary, while the horizontal line and smaller box inside (一 and 口) show things placed together within that same space. When multiple things occupy the same enclosed area, they share the same place and are therefore equal or identical. Over time, this visual idea of things grouped together in one container came to mean "same" or "agree."
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #15 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+0540C