字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

number, strength, fate, law, figures

On’yomi スウ、ス、サク、ソク、シュ
Kun’yomi かず、かぞ.える、しばしば、せ.める、わずらわ.しい
Nanori じゅ

Origin

This character combines two components to express the idea of counting and numbers. The left part originally depicted a type of grain or small objects, suggesting things that can be counted or enumerated. The right part is a classifier meaning "action" or "movement," which indicates doing something. Together, these parts suggest the repeated action of counting or tallying individual items, which eventually came to mean "number" in the broader sense. Over time, the character extended to related meanings like quantity, strength through numerical measurement, and the mathematical laws or rules that govern numerical relationships.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

数 13 strokes

Components

  • 娄 meaning part left
  • 攵 radical right

Common words

  • 員数 いんずう (total) number (of people or things); count
  • 画数 かくすう stroke count (of a kanji)
  • 回数 かいすう number of times; frequency
  • 奇数 きすう odd number
  • 偶数 ぐうすう even number
  • 件数 けんすう number of cases, incidents, items, messages, accounts, etc.
  • 戸数 こすう number of houses; number of households
  • 算数 さんすう arithmetic

Related kanji

Same radical
Shares components

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
66
Grade
Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#148 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06570