字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

bridge

On’yomi キョウ
Kun’yomi はし
Nanori ばせ

Origin

The character 橋 shows a tree (木) on the left, which makes sense since bridges were traditionally built from wood. The component on the right (喬) serves as a sound hint, telling you roughly how to pronounce the character—it doesn't describe what a bridge looks like or does. By combining the "tree" classifier with the sound hint, Japanese readers could recognize this as a wooden structure used for crossing, which is exactly what a bridge is.

橋 16 strokes

Components

  • 木 radical left
  • 喬 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

  • 橋脚 きょうきゃく bridge pier; pontoon bridge
  • 桟橋 さんばし wharf; bridge
  • 石橋 いしばし stone bridge
  • 鉄橋 てっきょう railway bridge; iron bridge
  • 新橋 しんばし Shinbashi (Tokyo)
  • 陸橋 りっきょう bridge (over a road or railway); overpass
  • 架橋 かきょう bridge-building; bridge construction
  • 船橋 ふなばし pontoon bridge; floating bridge

Related kanji

Same sound component 喬
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
16
Kangxi radical
75
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#553 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06A4B