Meaning & readings
rapids, current, torrent, shallows, shoal
On’yomi ライ
Kun’yomi せ
Nanori いわた、がせ、しげ、せい、せっ
Origin
This character combines water (the three-dot radical on the left) with a sound hint on the right that suggests how to pronounce it. The water radical classifies this as a word about flowing water, while the right component signals a pronunciation similar to "rai." The combination refers to places where water moves swiftly and shallowly, like rapids or a current over a riverbed—spots where the water's movement is visible and turbulent rather than deep and smooth.
Components
- 氵
- 頼
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 19
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1152 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0702C