Meaning & readings
inter-, mutual, together, each other, minister of state, councillor, aspect, phase, physiognomy
On’yomi ソウ、ショウ
Kun’yomi あい-
Nanori あ、い、おう、さ、さが、すけ
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.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 109
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #45 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+076F8