Meaning & readings
virtuous, good, goodness
Origin
This character appears to combine the idea of a person (羊, which originally depicted a sheep or animal) with a mouth or speech element (口). The connection likely reflects how goodness in early Chinese culture was associated with verbal praise and approval—when people speak well of someone, they recognize their virtue. The character's shape evolved over centuries from these visual elements into its current abstract form, but it still carries the sense of something that receives positive recognition or approval. The "good" or "virtuous" meaning stuck because virtuous people are those whom others speak favorably about.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (善).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #765 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05584