Meaning & readings
circumference, circuit, lap
On’yomi シュウ
Kun’yomi まわ.り
Nanori あまね、しゅ、す、ちか、のり、ひろ、びび、まこと
Origin
This character shows a square frame (冂) surrounding the character for "auspicious" (吉), creating an image of something enclosed or bounded on all sides. The frame represents a perimeter or boundary, while the centered element shows what is being enclosed. Together, this visual composition of "frame around something" came to mean the space around an object, leading to the meanings of circumference, circuit, and lap. The idea is that when you go around something completely, you return to where you started after traveling its full circuit.
Components
- 冂
- 吉
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #562 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05468