Meaning & readings
hundred
On’yomi ヒャク、ビャク
Kun’yomi もも
Nanori お、ど、どう、なり、ひゃっ、ひゅく、も、もんど、ゆう
Origin
This character most likely combines two components to represent the idea of "hundred." The top part, a single horizontal line, can suggest unity or a single unit. The bottom part, white or bright, originally meant completeness or fullness. Together, these components express the concept of a complete group of one hundred — a full, unified quantity. The exact reasoning behind this pairing has been lost to history, but the combination stuck as the standard way to write this large number in Chinese and Japanese.
Common words
- 何百 なんびゃく hundreds
- 数百 すうひゃく several hundred; hundreds (of)
- 百合 ゆり lily (Lilium spp.)
- 百姓 ひゃくしょう farmer; peasant
- 四百 よんひゃく 400; four hundred
- 八百屋 やおや greengrocer; fruit and vegetable shop
- 百貨店 ひゃっかてん department store
- 二百十日 にひゃくとおか 210th day (from the first day of spring according to the lunar calendar); the storm day
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 106
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #163 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+0767E