Meaning & readings

melt, dissolve, thaw

On’yomi ヨウ
Kun’yomi と.ける、と.かす、と.く

Origin

This character combines water on the left with a sound hint on the right. The water radical indicates the general meaning area of liquid processes. The right component provides a sound hint for pronunciation — it suggests how to say the character aloud, roughly like "yoh." Together, the water component and sound hint combine to create a character meaning to melt or dissolve, capturing the idea of a solid becoming liquid or a substance spreading through water.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

13 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 溶く とく to mix (e.g. water with flour); to dissolve (salt in water, paint, etc.)
  • 溶液 ようえき solution (liquid)
  • 溶解 ようかい dissolution; dissolving
  • 溶岩 ようがん lava
  • 溶接 ようせつ welding
  • 水溶性 すいようせい water-soluble
  • 溶かす とかす to melt; to liquefy
  • 溶ける とける to melt; to liquefy

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
85
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1364 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06EB6