Meaning & readings

universal, wide(ly), generally, Prussia

On’yomi
Kun’yomi あまね.く、あまねし
Nanori しん、ひろ

Origin

The character combines two parts: the top part represents things arranged in a row or spread out, and the bottom part is a box shape representing the sun or a time period. Together, these components suggest something that spreads widely or extends everywhere, like sunlight that reaches all places equally. This visual idea of broad, even coverage led to the meaning "universal" or "widely." Over time, the character came to mean generally or commonly applied to many things.

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

12 strokes

Components

  • meaning part top
  • radical bottom

Common words

  • 普及 ふきゅう diffusion; spread
  • 普賢 ふげん Samantabhadra (bodhisattva); Universal Compassion
  • 普段 ふだん usual; normal
  • 普通 ふつう normal; ordinary
  • 普遍 ふへん universal; general
  • 普段着 ふだんぎ everyday clothes; ordinary clothes
  • 普遍的 ふへんてき universal; omnipresent
  • 普通選挙 ふつうせんきょ universal suffrage

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
72
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#757 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0666E