Meaning & readings
undefiled, pure, clean, righteous, gallant
On’yomi ケツ
Kun’yomi いさぎよ.い
Nanori きよ、きよし
Origin
This character combines water (the left-side element) with a sound hint on the right that suggests how to pronounce it. Water here represents the literal idea of cleanness and purity — things washed in water become clean. The right component tells you roughly how to say the character, but does not contribute a separate meaning. Together, the character came to mean not just physical cleanliness but also moral purity and righteous conduct, as if someone's character were as clear and untainted as clean water.
Components
- 氵
- 絜
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1595 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+06F54