Meaning & readings

icicle, ice, hail, freeze, congeal

On’yomi ヒョウ
Kun’yomi こおり、ひ、こお.る
Nanori すい

Origin

Water freezes and becomes hard and cold, so the character shows water (the left component) combined with a symbol representing the frozen, solid state. The two water radicals together emphasize the idea of water in a changed form — specifically, water that has turned to ice. The ancient Chinese combined these visual elements to create a character that directly shows what ice is: transformed water.

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

5 strokes

Components

  • radical
  • radical
  • radical

Common words

  • 氷河 ひょうが glacier
  • 氷山 ひょうざん iceberg
  • 流氷 りゅうひょう drift ice; ice floe
  • かき氷 かきごおり shaved ice (usually served with flavored simple syrup); Italian ice
  • 氷点下 ひょうてんか below freezing
  • 南氷洋 なんひょうよう Antarctic Ocean

Reference

Strokes
5
Kangxi radical
85
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1450 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06C37