Meaning & readings
penetrate, clear, pierce, strike home, sit up (all night)
On’yomi テツ
Nanori あき、つ、てっ、とおる
Origin
This character combines a walking radical on the left, which suggests movement or action, with a sound component on the right that hints at the pronunciation テツ. The idea of walking or moving through something naturally connects to the meaning of penetrating or piercing all the way through — like walking straight through an obstacle. The sense of clarity and striking home comes from this same idea of going completely through something without obstruction, making it clear and complete.
Components
- 彳
- 育+攵
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 60
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #968 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05FB9