Meaning & readings

spare time, rest, leisure, time, leave of absence

On’yomi カ
Kun’yomi ひま、いとま

Origin

The character 暇 combines the radical 日, which represents the sun or a time period, with the component 叚 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. The left side 日 suggests the concept of time or a cycle of days. When you have spare time or leisure, those are periods when your days are free and unstructured, so the sun-related radical makes sense for marking time that belongs to you rather than being consumed by work. The right component 叚 doesn't contribute a separate meaning but instead hints at how the character should be pronounced.

暇 13 strokes

Components

  • 日 radical left
  • 叚 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

  • 休暇 きゅうか holiday; vacation
  • 寸暇 すんか moment's leisure; free minute
  • 余暇 よか leisure; leisure time
  • 暇つぶし ひまつぶし killing time; keeping oneself occupied
  • 暇がない ひまがない busy; having no time (for)

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
72
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1386 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+06687