Meaning & readings
bathe, be favored with, bask in
On’yomi ヨク
Kun’yomi あ.びる、あ.びせる
Nanori えき、さこ
Origin
This character combines water on the left with a sound hint on the right. The water component (called the liquid radical) shows this is about something wet or water-related. The right side, pronounced "tani," gives a rough sound hint for how the full character is pronounced—roughly "yoku" in Japanese. Together, the water indicator paired with this sound hint created a character meaning to bathe or soak in water, and by extension, to be showered with something desirable like favor or warmth.
Components
- 氵
- 谷
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 入浴 にゅうよく bathing; going in the bath
- 浴室 よくしつ bathroom
- 浴場 よくじょう bathhouse; (public) bath
- 浴槽 よくそう bathtub
- 浴衣 ゆかた yukata; light cotton kimono worn in the summer or used as a bathrobe
- 海水浴 かいすいよく swimming in the ocean; sea bathing
- 日光浴 にっこうよく sunbathing; basking in the sun
- 浴びる あびる to dash over oneself (e.g. water); to take (e.g. shower)
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1136 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06D74