字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

plant

On’yomi ショク
Kun’yomi う.える、う.わる
Nanori うえ、え、げ

Origin

The character 植 combines the wood radical 木 on the left, which identifies the character as being about plants or trees, with the component 直 on the right that serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. The word originally referred to the act of planting trees or vegetation in the ground, so pairing the "wood" classifier with a sound component created a character for this agricultural action. Over time, its meaning broadened to encompass plants and planting more generally. The left-right arrangement puts the meaningful component (wood) in the more prominent position while the sound hint assists speakers in remembering how to pronounce it.

植 12 strokes

Components

  • 木 radical left
  • 直 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

  • 移植 いしょく transplanting (a plant); transplant
  • 誤植 ごしょく misprint; typographical error
  • 植樹 しょくじゅ tree-planting
  • 植物 しょくぶつ plant; vegetation
  • 植林 しょくりん afforestation
  • 入植 にゅうしょく settlement; immigration
  • 植木 うえき garden plant; garden tree
  • 植える うえる to plant; to grow

Related kanji

Same sound component 直
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
75
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#699 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0690D