Meaning & readings

poison, virus, venom, germ, harm, injury, spite

On’yomi ドク

Origin

This character combines two components to show the idea of poison. The top part suggests something harmful or unnatural, while the bottom part, which comes from a character meaning "mother" or related to biological origins, indicates a substance. Together they paint the picture of something toxic or disease-causing that enters the body—a substance that harms like a mother's opposite, or something that corrupts life itself. The combination effectively captures the sense of a dangerous, life-threatening agent.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

8 strokes

Components

  • meaning part top
  • radical bottom

Common words

  • 消毒 しょうどく disinfection; sterilization
  • 中毒 ちゅうどく poisoning
  • 毒殺 どくさつ killing by poisoning; killing with poison
  • 毒性 どくせい toxicity; virulence
  • 毒舌 どくぜつ wicked tongue; sharp tongue
  • 毒薬 どくやく poison
  • 有毒 ゆうどく poisonous; toxic
  • 気の毒 きのどく pitiful; unfortunate

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
80
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1419 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06BD2