Meaning & readings

grate, rub, scratch, scrape, chafe, scour

On’yomi サツ
Kun’yomi す.る、す.れる、-ず.れ、こす.る、こす.れる

Origin

The left component 扌 is a hand radical that shows this character is about something done by hand. The right component 察 provides the sound hint, telling you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together, the hand doing an action suggested by the sound component creates a character meaning to rub, scratch, or scrape—actions performed with the hand against a surface. The shape combines the idea of manual action with a pronunciation guide to form the complete meaning.

擦 17 strokes

Components

  • 扌 radical left
  • 察 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
17
Kangxi radical
64
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1485 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+064E6