字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

abbreviation, omission, outline, shorten, capture, plunder

On’yomi リャク
Kun’yomi ほぼ、はぶ.く、おか.す、おさ.める、はかりごと、はか.る

Origin

This character combines two parts. On the left, 田 (a square representing a field or area) suggests the idea of something bounded or defined. On the right, 各 acts as a sound hint, roughly indicating how to pronounce the character. Together, the combination came to mean "to outline" or "to mark off a bounded area," which naturally extended to mean "abbreviation" or "omission"—leaving out the details and keeping only the essential outline. The sense of "capture" or "seize" likely grew from the idea of taking what is essential or bounded.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

略 11 strokes

Components

  • 田 radical left
  • 各 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 概略 がいりゃく outline; summary
  • 簡略 かんりゃく simple; brief
  • 攻略 こうりゃく capture (of enemy territory); taking (by storm)
  • 策略 さくりゃく stratagem; artifice
  • 省略 しょうりゃく omission; leaving out
  • 戦略 せんりゃく strategy; tactics
  • 前略 ぜんりゃく dispensing with the preliminaries ...
  • 中略 ちゅうりゃく omission (of middle part of a text); ellipsis

Related kanji

Same sound component 各
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
102
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#774 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+07565