専 (Specialty) — Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

specialty, exclusive, mainly, solely

On’yomi セン

Kun’yomi もっぱ.ら

Origin

The character 専 combines a sound hint at the top with a meaningful classifier at the bottom. The top component, which looks like a roof or cover over 由, provides a rough guide to how the character is pronounced (seN). The bottom part, 寸, originally meant a small unit of measurement or something limited in scope, which connects to the idea of something narrow or exclusive. Together, the shape suggests something confined or restricted—which grew into the meanings of specialty, exclusivity, and doing something solely or mainly.

専 9 strokes

Components

2+由 sound hint top
寸 radical bottom

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

Common words

住専じゅうせん housing-loan corporation
専らもっぱら wholly; solely
専横せんおう arbitrariness; despotism
専業せんぎょう special occupation; principal occupation
専攻せんこう major subject; special study
専修せんしゅう specialization; specialisation
専制せんせい despotism; autocracy
専属せんぞく exclusive; attached to

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

卑 lowly, base

Reference

Strokes: 9
Kangxi radical: 41
Formation type: Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade: Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank: #506 (newspapers)
Former JLPT: level 2
Unicode: U+05C02