Meaning & readings

refreshing, nice and cool

On’yomi リョウ
Kun’yomi すず.しい、すず.む、すず.やか、うす.い、ひや.す、まことに
Nanori りょ

Origin

The character 涼 combines water (the three-dot radical on the left) with 京, which represents a tall building or capital city. The connection works through the idea of air circulation: a tall structure like a building or tower allows cool air and breezes to flow freely, creating that refreshing, cooling sensation. Since water is also associated with coolness, putting the water radical together with the "tall/open space" meaning of 京 visually captures the concept of refreshing coolness—the kind you feel from a breeze or cool air moving through an open space.

涼 11 strokes

Components

  • 氵 radical left
  • 京 meaning part right

Common words

  • 清涼 せいりょう cool; refreshing
  • 涼む すずむ to cool oneself; to cool off
  • 涼風 りょうふう cool breeze; refreshing breeze
  • 涼しい すずしい cool; refreshing

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
85
Formation type
Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1783 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06DBC