字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

reflect, reflection, projection

On’yomi エイ
Kun’yomi うつ.る、うつ.す、は.える、-ば.え
Nanori あきら、え、てる

Origin

This character combines the sun radical 日 on the left with 央, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The core idea is that light from the sun can be reflected or cast onto a surface — when sunlight bounces off something or projects onto it, you see an image or reflection. The 央 component doesn't contribute to the meaning directly; it just signals roughly how the word should sound when spoken. Over time, the character expanded to cover the general sense of anything appearing, reflecting, or being projected, not just light.

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

映 9 strokes

Components

  • 日 radical left
  • 央 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

  • 映る うつる to be reflected; to harmonize with (harmonise)
  • 映画 えいが movie; film
  • 映像 えいぞう image (on a screen); picture (e.g. on a TV)
  • 上映 じょうえい screening (a movie); showing
  • 放映 ほうえい televising; broadcasting
  • 映す うつす to project; to reflect
  • 反映 はんえい reflection (of light)
  • 映画館 えいがかん movie theatre; movie theater

Related kanji

Same sound component 央
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
9
Kangxi radical
72
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#404 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+06620