Meaning & readings
shame, dishonor
On’yomi チ
Kun’yomi は.じる、はじ、は.じらう、は.ずかしい
Origin
This character pairs the heart radical on the right, which represents emotions and internal feelings, with the ear radical on the left that acts as a sound hint for pronunciation. The combination makes sense because shame is an emotional feeling that arises from being exposed or heard about — your internal sense of dishonor relates to how others perceive you. The ear component doesn't literally mean "ear" in this character; it's there mainly to suggest the sound of the word, while the heart component carries the core meaning of an internal emotional state.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 61
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1575 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06065