Meaning & readings
fundamentals, radical (chem), counter for machines, foundation
On’yomi キ
Kun’yomi もと、もとい
Nanori きい、とも
Origin
The character 基 combines earth or soil (土) with a sound hint (其) stacked on top. Since foundations and fundamentals are built from or rooted in physical ground, the earth component makes sense for the meaning. The 其 part acts purely as a pronunciation guide, roughly matching the "ki" sound used in reading this character. Over time, the concrete idea of a solid base of earth expanded metaphorically to mean any kind of foundation or fundamental principle.
Components
- 其
- 土
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 11
- Kangxi radical
- 32
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #241 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+057FA