字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

grind, polish, scour, improve, brush (teeth)

On’yomi マ
Kun’yomi みが.く、す.る
Nanori おさむ

Origin

This character combines stone (石) on the bottom with a sound hint component (麻) on top. The stone radical makes sense for the meaning since polishing and grinding are actions performed on stone surfaces. The 麻 component serves as a pronunciation guide rather than contributing to the meaning itself. Together, the character visually suggests the action of working with stone through abrasion—something you'd do when polishing or grinding a hard material.

磨 16 strokes

Components

  • 麻 sound hint top-left wrap
  • 石 radical position.tarec

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

Common words

  • 達磨 だるま daruma; tumbling doll
  • 磨く みがく to polish; to shine
  • 研磨 けんま grinding; polishing
  • 磨き みがき polish; burnishing
  • 琢磨 たくま polish (jewels); cultivation
  • 歯磨き はみがき dental brushing; brushing one's teeth

Related kanji

Same sound component 麻
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
16
Kangxi radical
112
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1608 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+078E8