Meaning & readings
dream, vision, illusion
On’yomi ム、ボウ
Kun’yomi ゆめ、ゆめ.みる、くら.い
Origin
This character appears to combine the roof radical (the top strokes that look like a house or shelter) with elements suggesting darkness or obscurity below. The formation likely reflects how dreams happen in the dark stillness of sleep, when you're lying under the roof at night. The character's overall shape evokes that closed-off, interior space where dreams occur — a private mental world hidden from the outside view. Over time, this visual idea of being enclosed in darkness came to represent the abstract concept of dreams and visions themselves.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (夢).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 13
- Kangxi radical
- 36
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #943 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05922