Meaning & readings

sultry, hot, summer heat

On’yomi ショ
Kun’yomi あつ.い

Origin

The character combines the sun radical at the top with at the bottom. The sun component directly represents the source of heat and establishes the meaning around warmth and heat. The component at the bottom serves as a sound hint, suggesting how the character should be pronounced rather than adding to the meaning. Together, the image of the sun plus this phonetic guide created a character that specifically refers to intense summer heat and sultry weather.

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

12 strokes

Components

  • radical top
  • sound hint bottom

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 酷暑 こくしょ intense heat; severe heat
  • 残暑 ざんしょ late summer heat; lingering summer heat
  • 暑い あつい hot; warm
  • 暑さ あつさ heat (of the weather); hotness
  • 暑中 しょちゅう height of summer; high summer
  • 避暑 ひしょ escaping the summer heat; going somewhere cooler during the summer
  • 猛暑 もうしょ heat wave; fierce heat
  • 蒸し暑い むしあつい humid; sultry

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
72
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1442 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+06691