Meaning & readings
goods, refinement, dignity, article, counter for meal courses
On’yomi ヒン、ホン
Kun’yomi しな
Origin
This character is made of three copies of the box shape that represents a container or item. By stacking three identical squares or boxes together, the character visually suggests a collection of multiple goods or articles. The idea is that one item is just a single thing, but three of them together represents goods in quantity—merchandise or products. Over time, this concept of "goods" expanded to include related meanings like quality, refinement, and dignity, since fine goods were associated with high quality and elegance.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (品).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #225 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+054C1