Meaning & readings
religion, sect, denomination, main point, origin, essence
On’yomi シュウ、ソウ
Kun’yomi むね
Nanori かず、し、そ、そお、たか、とし、のり、ひろ、むな、もと、よし
Origin
This character combines a roof or house (the top component) with an altar or religious offering (the bottom component). Together, they picture a sacred space under shelter—a temple or place of worship where people gather to venerate something. From this image of a dedicated religious space, the character came to mean religion, sect, and the spiritual traditions people follow. The meaning later expanded to encompass the broader sense of "origin" or "essence," as the religion of a place or group represents its core identity.
Components
- 宀
- 示
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 40
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #997 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05B97