Meaning & readings
worship, adore, pray to
On’yomi ハイ
Kun’yomi おが.む、おろが.む
Origin
This character shows a person bowing deeply with both hands pressed together in front of them—the basic gesture of worship or prayer in East Asian cultures. The strokes capture the posture of someone lowering their body respectfully before a god, ancestor, or honored person. Over time, this picture of reverent bowing became the written sign for the ideas of worship, adoration, and prayer themselves. The character essentially freezes a moment of religious or respectful devotion into a visual form.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (拝).
Common words
- 参拝 さんぱい going and worshipping (at a shrine or temple); visit (to a shrine or temple to worship)
- 崇拝 すうはい worship; adoration
- 拝む おがむ to assume the posture of praying; to press the palms and fingers of both hands together
- 拝啓 はいけい Dear (so and so); Dear Sir
- 拝見 はいけん seeing; looking at
- 拝借 はいしゃく borrowing
- 礼拝 れいはい worship (esp. Christian); (church) service
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 64
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1443 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+062DD