Meaning & readings
bureau, board, office, affair, conclusion, court lady, lady-in-waiting, her apartment
Origin
The character 局 combines two parts to express the idea of a bounded space or domain. The left component 尸 suggests a body or frame—something with structure and position. The right component 句 means a phrase or section, implying something contained and defined. Together, they picture a confined area or compartment, which naturally extended to mean an office, bureau, or official post—a specific place where official business happens. This same sense of a bounded domain led to meanings like "court lady" (a woman in a specific position) and "conclusion" (the bounded end point of something).
Components
- 尸
- 句
Common words
- 医局 いきょく medical office (esp. in a hospital); doctor's office
- 一局 いっきょく one game (of go, shogi, etc.)
- 開局 かいきょく opening (of a broadcasting station, post office, bureau, etc.); establishment
- 局員 きょくいん clerk; (bureau, post-office) staff
- 局地 きょくち locality; local area
- 局長 きょくちょう bureau director; office chief
- 局番 きょくばん telephone exchange number
- 局面 きょくめん position in a game; state of the game
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 44
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #286 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05C40