Meaning & readings
wide, broad, spacious
On’yomi コウ
Kun’yomi ひろ.い、ひろ.まる、ひろ.める、ひろ.がる、ひろ.げる
Origin
This character appears to be phono-semantic, combining a meaning part with a sound hint. The left component 广, which looks like an open roof or shelter, suggests the idea of an expansive space or area — something broad and spread out. The right component 厶 acts as a sound hint, telling you roughly how to pronounce the character (コウ), without adding to the meaning itself. Together, the character's visual impression of a wide-open shelter helped it come to mean "wide" or "spacious."
Components
- 广
- 厶
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 53
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #263 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+05E83