Meaning & readings

rather, preferably, peaceful, quiet, tranquility

On’yomi ネイ
Kun’yomi むし.ろ
Nanori あき、やす、やすし、よし

Origin

This character combines a sound hint with a meaning component. The top part, 寍, provides a rough pronunciation guide for how to say the character. The bottom part is , which relates to the idea of something fixed or settled in place. Together, these elements suggest a state of being calm and undisturbed—a peaceful, stable condition. Over time, this visual combination came to represent not just peacefulness but also the idea of preferring one thing over another, as if choosing to remain settled in a particular preference.

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

14 strokes

Components

  • sound hint top
  • meaning part bottom

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 丁寧 ていねい polite; courteous
  • 寧ろ むしろ rather; better

Reference

Strokes
14
Kangxi radical
40
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1697 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+05BE7