Meaning & readings

commander, leading troops, governor

On’yomi スイ

Origin

This character most likely combines the idea of leadership with visual elements suggesting authority. The left side contains a component related to cloth or banners, which would be natural symbols of military command and official rank. The right side includes elements suggesting a person or figure in a position of prominence. Together, these parts create an image of someone distinguished by insignia or regalia—someone visibly set apart as a leader. Over time, this visual concept of a marked-out leader evolved into the meaning of a military commander or governor.

帥 9 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (帥).

  • 帥 meaning part

Common words

  • 元帥 げんすい (field) marshal; (fleet) admiral
  • 総帥 そうすい commander-in-chief; leader
  • 統帥 とうすい supreme command; high command

Easily confused with

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

Reference

Strokes
9
Kangxi radical
50
Formation type
Pictographic or simple
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#2016 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+05E25