字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

ambition, full moon, hope, desire, aspire to, expect

On’yomi ボウ、モウ
Kun’yomi のぞ.む、もち
Nanori み、も

Origin

The character 望 combines a sound hint with a meaningful component. The bottom part, 王, means "king" or "ruler" and acts as the classifier, suggesting this character relates to something of importance or prominence. The top part, 亡, provides a sound hint for pronunciation rather than adding to the meaning. Together, these parts formed a character meaning to look out or gaze upward—perhaps imagining someone of high status looking out from a tower or palace. Over time, this visual sense of looking outward expanded to mean hope, desire, and ambition, as if gazing toward something you long for.

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

望 11 strokes

Components

  • 亡 sound hint top
  • 王 radical bottom

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

Common words

  • 渇望 かつぼう craving; longing
  • 希望 きぼう hope; wish
  • 志望 しぼう wish; desire
  • 失望 しつぼう disappointment; despair
  • 嘱望 しょくぼう having great hopes for (someone's future); expecting much of
  • 切望 せつぼう earnest desire; eager hope
  • 絶望 ぜつぼう despair; hopelessness
  • 待望 たいぼう waiting expectantly; waiting eagerly

Related kanji

Same sound component 亡
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
74
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#470 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0671B