Meaning & readings
beckon, invite, summon, engage
On’yomi ショウ
Kun’yomi まね.く
Origin
This character combines a hand radical on the left, which indicates an action done with the hand or arm, with the component 召 on the right that serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. The right component suggests roughly how to say the character (sho- sound), while the hand on the left shows you're performing a physical gesture. Together they create the image of using your hand to beckon or wave someone toward you, which is the core meaning of inviting or summoning someone.
Components
- 扌
- 召
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
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 64
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #840 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+062DB