Meaning & readings
camp, perform, build, conduct (business)
Origin
This character appears to combine a sound component at the top that hints at its pronunciation with the component 呂 (which relates to pitch pipes or musical scales) at the bottom. Over time, the character's visual form became associated with the idea of building or conducting something — possibly because organizing or arranging (like tuning pipes) requires structured effort and planning. The meaning gradually broadened from these concrete notions to include the general sense of "performing" or "conducting business." The exact semantic link between the parts is unclear, but the character's shape has long carried the sense of systematic human activity and construction.
Components
- 𤇾V
- 呂
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
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
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #303 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+055B6