Meaning & readings

torture, beat

On’yomi ゴウ

Origin

This character combines a hand radical on the left, which indicates an action done with the hands, with the component on the right that serves as a sound hint for how to pronounce the character. The hand radical suggests physical action, while the sound component ties the character to its pronunciation. Together, they create a character meaning to beat or torture, actions performed by hand. The specific meaning developed from the physical, violent nature of the action rather than from the sound hint itself.

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

9 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

Reference

Strokes
9
Kangxi radical
64
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#2057 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+062F7