字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

castle

On’yomi ジョウ、セイ
Kun’yomi しろ
Nanori いく、がき、き、くに、ぐしく、ぐすく、しき、すく、ぜい、たち、なり

Origin

The character 城 combines the component 土 (earth) on the left, which indicates this character relates to something made of earth or soil, with 成 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. Castles were traditionally built from earth and stone fortifications, so the earth radical makes sense as a classifier. The right component tells you roughly how to pronounce the character rather than adding to its meaning. Together, the shape visually suggests a fortified structure built from earth.

城 9 strokes

Components

  • 土 radical left
  • 成 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

  • 開城 かいじょう surrender of a castle; surrender of a fortress
  • 古城 こじょう old castle; old fortress
  • 城郭 じょうかく castle; citadel
  • 城主 じょうしゅ lord of a castle
  • 城内 じょうない inside of a castle
  • 城下町 じょうかまち castle town; city in Japan that developed around the castle of a feudal lord

Related kanji

Same sound component 成
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
9
Kangxi radical
32
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#795 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+057CE