Meaning & readings
soil, earth, ground, Turkey
On’yomi ド、ト
Kun’yomi つち
Nanori つく、は、ひじ
Origin
The character 土 is a simple picture of earth or soil. The three strokes form a square or rectangular shape that represents a lump of ground or a patch of earth. This pictographic origin directly reflects the character's core meaning of soil and earth. Over time, the square shape became standardized into the four strokes you see today, but it still visually suggests something solid and earthbound.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (土).
Common words
- 郷土 きょうど native place; birth-place
- 国土 こくど country; territory
- 出土 しゅつど archeological excavation (archaeological)
- 浄土 じょうど pure land (esp. the Western Pure Land paradise of Amitabha); (Buddhist) paradise
- 全土 ぜんど whole nation; whole land
- 土間 どま dirt floor; room with dirt floor
- 土器 どき earthenware
- 土産 みやげ local specialty or souvenir bought as a gift while travelling
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 3
- Kangxi radical
- 32
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #307 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+0571F