Meaning & readings

dark, foolish

On’yomi マイ、バイ
Kun’yomi くら.い、むさぼ.る

Origin

This character combines sun (日) on the left with the component 未, which represents something not yet mature or complete. Together they create the idea of a sun that is obscured or blocked—either literally dark, or metaphorically dim in understanding. The "not yet" sense of 未 paired with the brightness of the sun suggests something lacking in clarity or light, which naturally led to meanings like "dark" and by extension "foolish" or unable to see clearly. This is a straightforward combination of two visual ideas to express a state of darkness or obscurity.

昧 9 strokes

Components

  • 日 radical left
  • 未 meaning part right

Common words

  • 曖昧 あいまい vague; ambiguous

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
9
Kangxi radical
72
Formation type
Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
—
Former JLPT
—
Unicode
U+06627