Meaning & readings
spine, backbone
On’yomi ロ、リョ
Kun’yomi せぼね
Nanori とも、なが
Origin
This character appears to be a picture of the spine or backbone viewed from the side. The vertical line in the middle represents the spinal column, while the small rectangular or box-like segments stacked on either side suggest the individual vertebrae. By stacking these bone segments vertically, the character captures the essential structure of a backbone, making the visual form match its meaning quite directly.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (呂).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #2055 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05442