Meaning & readings

suspicious, mystery, apparition

On’yomi カイ、ケ
Kun’yomi あや.しい、あや.しむ

Origin

The left part, the heart radical, shows this character deals with feelings and emotions. The right part is a sound hint that tells you roughly how to say the character. Together, they make a character meaning something that provokes emotional reactions—specifically unease, doubt, or suspicion. When you encounter something mysterious or apparition-like, your heart naturally fills with wariness and suspicion. The combination of the emotional component with a phonetic guide created this character to express that uncertain, unsettled feeling.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

8 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 怪我 けが injury; wound
  • 怪奇 かいき bizarre; strange
  • 怪獣 かいじゅう monster
  • 怪談 かいだん ghost story; tale of the supernatural
  • 怪物 かいぶつ monster
  • 奇怪 きかい strange; wonderful
  • 妖怪 ようかい ghost; apparition
  • 怪しむ あやしむ to suspect

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
61
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1634 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0602A