字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

commence, begin

On’yomi シ
Kun’yomi はじ.める、-はじ.める、はじ.まる
Nanori もと

Origin

The character 始 combines a woman (女) on the left with a sound hint (台) on the right. The woman component suggests the idea of birth or origin, since women give birth and mark the beginning of new life. The right side (台) doesn't mean anything related to beginning; it simply tells you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together, the visual idea of a woman as a source of new beginnings paired with the sound hint created a character meaning "to commence" or "to begin."

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

始 8 strokes

Components

  • 女 radical left
  • 台 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

  • 開始 かいし start; commencement
  • 原始 げんし origin; beginning
  • 始業 しぎょう start of work; commencement
  • 始終 しじゅう continuously; from beginning to end
  • 始動 しどう starting (a machine, engine, etc.)
  • 始発 しはつ first departure (of the day); first train
  • 始末 しまつ management; dealing with
  • 終始 しゅうし beginning and end

Related kanji

Same sound component 台
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
38
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#244 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+059CB