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.
Components
- 龶
- 毋
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 80
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1419 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06BD2