Meaning & readings
special
On’yomi トク
Origin
The character 特 combines the ox radical on the left, which classifies this character as relating to cattle or animals, with the component 寺 on the right that serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation "toku." The ox radical suggests something distinctive or set apart within the animal realm. Over time, the meaning expanded from referring to something exceptional about cattle to the broader sense of "special" or "particular" in general. This pairing of a meaning-bearing radical with a sound-indicating component is typical of how many kanji were constructed to pack both semantic and phonetic information into a single character.
Common words
- 特に とくに particularly; especially
- 特異 とくい unique; peculiar
- 特技 とくぎ special skill
- 特急 とっきゅう limited express (train for which a limited-express ticket is required)
- 特許 とっきょ patent
- 特訓 とっくん special training; intensive training
- 特権 とっけん privilege; special right
- 特産 とくさん being produced in a particular region; local specialty
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 93
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #234 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+07279