Meaning & readings
cook, boil
On’yomi スイ
Kun’yomi た.く、-だ.き
Nanori い
Origin
This character combines fire on the left with a component meaning to lack or open on the right. The right side originally depicted a person with mouth open, suggesting the idea of taking in or consuming. Together, fire plus the sense of intake or opening represents the action of cooking—applying heat to food to break it down and make it ready to eat. The fire element visually grounds the meaning in the heat needed for cooking, while the other component suggests the transformative consumption involved in the process.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Common words
- 雑炊 ぞうすい rice porridge made by simmering cooked rice in a seasoned broth, often containing vegetables, fish, etc. (usu. made from leftovers)
- 自炊 じすい cooking for oneself; cooking one's own food
- 炊事 すいじ cooking; kitchen work
- 炊く たく to cook (grains, e.g. rice)
- 炊飯器 すいはんき rice cooker
- 炊き出し たきだし food distribution (esp. cooked rice)
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 86
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1777 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0708A