Meaning & readings
investigate
On’yomi サ
Origin
The character 査 combines wood (木) on top with 且 below, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation "sa." The wood radical might initially seem odd for "investigate," but it likely references the practice of examining wooden records or documents — in ancient times, important information was often written on bamboo or wood strips. By attaching the sound component 且, the character was formed to represent this investigative act of scrutinizing written materials. Over time, the meaning generalized from examining documents to the broader sense of investigating or inspecting anything.
Common words
- 検査 けんさ inspection (e.g. customs, factory); examination
- 査察 ささつ inspection (for compliance); investigation (tax, etc.)
- 査証 さしょう visa
- 査定 さてい assessment (of value, damages, etc.); revision (of a budget)
- 査問 さもん inquiry; enquiry
- 主査 しゅさ chief examiner or investigator
- 巡査 じゅんさ police officer; policeman
- 審査 しんさ judging; inspection
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 75
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #184 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+067FB