字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

tray, shallow bowl, platter, tub, board, phonograph record

On’yomi バン
Nanori ち、わ

Origin

This character combines a dish or shallow bowl (the radical 皿 at the bottom, which looks like a simple container) with a sound hint (般 at the top) that indicates roughly how to pronounce it. The bottom component 皿 tells you the character is about something flat and receptive — a tray, platter, or board — while the top component 般 provides a phonetic clue to the pronunciation. Over time, the character came to refer to any flat, shallow object used for holding or displaying things, from literal trays to abstract uses like a phonograph record or game board.

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

盤 15 strokes

Components

  • 般 sound hint top
  • 皿 radical bottom

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

Common words

  • 円盤 えんばん disk; discus
  • 岩盤 がんばん bedrock
  • 基盤 きばん base; basis
  • 鍵盤 けんばん keyboard (of a piano, typewriter, etc.)
  • 碁盤 ごばん Go board
  • 終盤 しゅうばん endgame; final stage
  • 序盤 じょばん opening (in a game of go, chess, etc.)
  • 胎盤 たいばん placenta

Related kanji

Same sound component 般
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
15
Kangxi radical
108
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#881 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+076E4