字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

chant, recite, call upon, yell

On’yomi ショウ
Kun’yomi とな.える

Origin

The character 唱 combines the mouth radical 口 on the left, which indicates this character relates to speech or voice, with the component 昌 on the right that serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. Since the meaning involves chanting, reciting, and calling out, the mouth radical makes sense—these are all things you do with your mouth and voice. The sound component 昌 doesn't add meaning but tells you roughly how the character should sound when spoken.

唱 11 strokes

Components

  • 口 radical left
  • 昌 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 歌唱 かしょう song; singing
  • 合唱 がっしょう singing together; singing in union
  • 唱歌 しょうか singing; song
  • 斉唱 せいしょう singing in unison; chanting in unison
  • 提唱 ていしょう advocacy; proposal
  • 独唱 どくしょう vocal solo
  • 主唱 しゅしょう advocacy; promotion
  • 合唱団 がっしょうだん chorus group; choir

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
30
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1123 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+05531