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 容 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.
Components
- 氵
- 容
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 13
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1364 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06EB6