Meaning & readings

snapshot, take pictures

On’yomi サツ
Kun’yomi と.る、つま.む、-ど.り

Origin

This character combines a hand radical on the left with the character 最 (sai) on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The hand component 扌 indicates the character involves a manual action—something you do with your hands. When you take a picture or snapshot, you use your hands to operate a camera, so the hand radical captures that physical act of grasping or manipulating something. The 最 component tells you roughly how to pronounce the word (sai becomes sats in the reading), while the hand element carries the meaning of a hands-on action.

撮 15 strokes

Components

  • 扌 radical left
  • 最 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

  • 撮る とる to take (a photograph)
  • 撮影 さつえい photography (still or motion); photographing
  • 写真撮影 しゃしんさつえい photography; taking photographs

Reference

Strokes
15
Kangxi radical
64
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1023 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+064AE