Meaning & readings

impart, instruct, grant, confer

On’yomi ジュ
Kun’yomi さず.ける、さず.かる

Origin

The left part, the hand radical (扌), shows this is about an action you do with your hands. The right part () is a sound hint that tells you roughly how to pronounce the character — it sounds like "ju" — but doesn't contribute to the meaning itself. Together, the character originally portrayed the physical act of handing something over to someone, which is why it came to mean giving instruction, granting permission, or conferring a role. The hand component makes clear this is about transfer or giving, while the sound component locks in how the word should be pronounced.

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

11 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

  • 教授 きょうじゅ professor
  • 授業 じゅぎょう lesson; class
  • 授受 じゅじゅ giving and receiving; transferring
  • 授賞 じゅしょう awarding a prize; giving an award
  • 授与 じゅよ awarding; conferment
  • 授かる さずかる to be granted (e.g. a title); to be awarded (e.g. a prize)
  • 授ける さずける to grant; to give
  • 授業料 じゅぎょうりょう tuition fee; course fee

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
64
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#535 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06388