Meaning & readings
kidnap, falsify
Origin
This character combines the hand radical (the left side, indicating an action) with components suggesting deception or deviation. The right side includes elements related to bending or turning, which visually and conceptually connects to the idea of leading someone astray—whether by kidnapping them or by falsifying information. The "hand" component makes clear this is about something you do to another person, while the other parts suggest wrongdoing or trickery. Over time, this visual combination came to represent both the physical act of abduction and the abstract concept of distorting the truth.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (拐).
Common words
- 誘拐 ゆうかい abduction; kidnapping
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 64
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1498 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+062D0