Meaning & readings
oil, fat
On’yomi ユ、ユウ
Kun’yomi あぶら
Origin
The character 油 combines water (the left component 氵, which classifies liquids) with the sound component 由 on the right. The water radical makes sense because oil and fat are liquid or oily substances. The 由 component doesn't contribute a meaning — it's there to hint at the character's pronunciation. Together, these parts create a character that means oil or fat, something slippery and liquid that flows like water.
Components
- 氵
- 由
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #690 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06CB9