Meaning & readings
fate, command, decree, destiny, life, appoint
Origin
This character appears to combine two elements: a mouth or speech indicator at the top, with a curved or bending form below representing a person or body. The shape suggests someone receiving words or orders from above. Over time, this visual idea of receiving commands or directions came to mean "command" or "decree." The related meanings of "fate" and "destiny" developed because commands from authority figures—or from heaven itself—were seen as determining a person's path. The sense of "life" itself likely emerged because in East Asian thought, life was understood as something decreed or appointed to each person.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (命).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #465 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+0547D