Meaning & readings
unusual, change, strange
On’yomi ヘン
Kun’yomi か.わる、か.わり、か.える
Origin
This character combines two parts to express the idea of change. The top component represents "also" or "in addition," suggesting something different or alternate. The bottom component is a classifier related to movement or progression—the idea of things going forward or shifting. Together, these elements picture the concept of something becoming different or taking on an alternate form, which is how the character came to mean "change" or "unusual." Over time, it developed meanings like strange or different because changing from the normal state makes something unusual.
Components
- 亦
- 夂
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 34
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #238 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05909