Meaning & readings
walk, counter for steps
On’yomi ホ、ブ、フ
Kun’yomi ある.く、あゆ.む
Nanori あ、ゆき、ゆみ
Origin
This character combines two ideas to represent walking. The top component 止 depicts a foot or footstep, which is the basic action. The bottom component 少 means "small" or "few," suggesting the small, incremental movements of each step. Together, they create the image of moving forward through repeated small foot movements, which is what walking is. The character thus pictures the essence of locomotion as a sequence of individual steps.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 77
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #554 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+06B69