Meaning & readings
exist, suppose, be aware of, believe, feel
Origin
This character appears to combine two simple components: a vertical line representing a person or presence, and a mark suggesting something being held or contained. The shape evolved to represent the idea of something persisting or remaining in place—the notion that a person or thing continues to exist and endure. Over time, the meaning broadened from simple physical existence to more abstract ideas like "suppose" or "be aware of," since believing something exists is similar to being conscious of it. The character's compact structure made it a useful written symbol for this fundamental concept in Chinese and Japanese.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (存).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 39
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #577 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05B58