Meaning & readings
overnight stay, put up at, ride at anchor
On’yomi ハク
Kun’yomi と.まる、と.める
Nanori とまり、はつ
Origin
This character pairs the water radical on the left, which hints at a liquid or waterside setting, with the character for "white" on the right, which serves as a sound hint for how the character is pronounced. The combination suggests something connected to water where you might rest or settle—like a ship anchoring in calm water or a traveler stopping at a waterside inn for the night. Over time, the meaning expanded from this literal image of stopping by water to the general idea of staying overnight or coming to rest.
Components
- 氵
- 白
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1233 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06CCA