Meaning & readings
end, close, tip, powder, posterity
On’yomi マツ、バツ
Kun’yomi すえ、うら、うれ
Origin
This character appears to be a picture of a tree with emphasis on its topmost branches. The horizontal line at the top represents the tip or end of the tree, while the vertical line below is the trunk. Since the top of a tree is the finest, most delicate part—where branches become thin twigs—the character came to mean "end" or "tip." From this visual idea of something at its furthest extent, the meaning expanded to include "close," "powder" (the finest particles), and even "posterity" (what comes at the end of a family line).
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (末).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 75
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #456 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+0672B