Meaning & readings

clear up

On’yomi セイ
Kun’yomi は.れる、は.れ、は.れ-、-ば.れ、は.らす
Nanori はる、はれ

Origin

The character combines the sun radical on the left with on the right, which serves as a sound hint for pronunciation rather than meaning. The sun component directly relates to the character's meaning of clear skies and good weather, since sunny conditions produce clear days. When the sun shines brightly without clouds, the sky appears clear, so pairing the sun symbol with a sound element creates a character that both looks like what it means and sounds like its Chinese pronunciation.

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

12 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • 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

  • 快晴 かいせい clear weather; cloudless weather
  • 晴れ はれ clear weather; fine weather
  • 晴天 せいてん fine weather (i.e. little or no clouds); fair weather
  • 晴らす はらす to dispel; to clear away
  • 晴れる はれる to clear up; to clear away
  • 秋晴れ あきばれ clear autumnal weather
  • 気晴らし きばらし recreation; diversion
  • 見晴らし みはらし (scenic) view; prospect

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
72
Grade
Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1022 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06674