Meaning & readings

seasons

On’yomi
Nanori すえ、とし

Origin

The character combines two ideas about crops and time. The top part, a picture of grain or rice plants, represents the harvest and agricultural cycle. The bottom part means child or small thing, and here suggests the youngest or final part of something. Together, they capture the idea of a season as a natural division of the year marked by what grows and ripens, making each season feel like a distinct period in nature's progression.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

8 strokes

Components

  • radical top
  • radical bottom

Common words

  • 季刊 きかん quarterly publication
  • 季語 きご seasonal word (in haiku)
  • 季節 きせつ season; time of year
  • 四季 しき the four seasons
  • 冬季 とうき winter season; winter
  • 雨季 うき rainy season
  • 夏季 かき summer season; summer
  • 乾季 かんき dry season

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
39
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#842 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+05B63