Meaning & readings
valve, petal, braid, speech, dialect, discrimination, dispose of, distinguish, conical cap
On’yomi ベン、ヘン
Kun’yomi かんむり、わきま.える、わ.ける、はなびら、あらそ.う
Nanori べ
Origin
The character 弁 combines two components that together suggest the idea of division or distinction. The top part 厶 and bottom part 廾 originally depicted things being separated or split apart. From this core sense of dividing or distinguishing comes the meaning "discrimination" — the ability to tell things apart. The character then naturally extended to related ideas: "speech" and "dialect" reflect how language divides meaning; "petal" and "valve" are both things with distinct, separated parts; and "braid" involves strands divided and interwoven. So the shape's fundamental idea of separation branched into these more specific meanings over time.
Components
- 厶
- 廾
Common words
- 駅弁 えきべん boxed lunch bought at a station (often a local specialty)
- 勘弁 かんべん pardon; forgiveness
- 合弁 ごうべん joint management; pool
- 代弁 だいべん speaking by proxy; speaking for (someone else)
- 答弁 とうべん response; reply
- 熱弁 ねつべん impassioned speech; fervent speech
- 弁解 べんかい explanation (e.g. for one's actions); excuse
- 弁慶 べんけい strong person; person putting on a brave front
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 55
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #619 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05F01