Meaning & readings
sphere, circle, radius, range
On’yomi ケン
Kun’yomi かこ.い
Origin
The character 圏 combines the box radical 囗, which represents an enclosed area or boundary, with 巻 as a sound hint that guides the pronunciation. The box shape literally shows something enclosed or circled around, and when you repeat this visual concept with another box, it emphasizes the idea of a contained space or spherical region. Over time, this boxing-in sense grew to mean a wider range or sphere of influence, not just a physical enclosure. The sound component 巻 helps readers know roughly how to pronounce the character without changing the core meaning about circles and boundaries.
Components
- 囗
- 巻
- 囗
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 31
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1216 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0570F