Meaning & readings
inter-, mutual, together, each other, minister of state, councillor, aspect, phase, physiognomy
Origin
This character combines "tree" on the left with "eye" on the right. The image suggests someone looking at trees — or more broadly, someone observing and examining things closely. From this idea of careful observation and mutual looking, the character came to mean "mutual" or "together," since people looking at each other are interacting. The sense of "minister" or "advisor" likely grew from the idea of someone who observes and counsels — someone who looks into matters carefully and helps guide decisions. Over time, the "mutual" and "together" meanings became primary.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 109
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #45 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+076F8