字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

rise up

On’yomi ショウ
Kun’yomi のぼ.る
Nanori しゅう、のり

Origin

The character 昇 combines the sun radical 日 on top with 升 below, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The sun rising up in the sky is a natural picture of something ascending, so the sun component carries the core meaning of "rise up." The 升 component doesn't add meaning—it's there mainly to guide how the character sounds. Together, these parts create a character that visually suggests the upward motion of the sun while also encoding its pronunciation.

昇 8 strokes

Components

  • 日 radical top
  • 升 sound hint bottom

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 昇格 しょうかく promotion; raising of status
  • 昇級 しょうきゅう promotion; advancement
  • 昇給 しょうきゅう salary raise
  • 昇進 しょうしん promotion; advancement
  • 上昇 じょうしょう rising; ascending

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
72
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#826 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06607