Meaning & readings
voice
On’yomi セイ、ショウ
Kun’yomi こえ、こわ-
Origin
The kanji 声 appears to be a pictographic character that originally depicted sound waves or vibrations coming from the mouth or throat. The shape suggests motion and resonance—the way voice physically travels through the air. Over time, the character became simplified and standardized into its current form, but it retained the meaning of voice or sound because it visually evokes how sound moves and spreads from a person speaking.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (声).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 33
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #388 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+058F0