Meaning & readings
show, indicate, point out, express, display
On’yomi ジ、シ
Kun’yomi しめ.す
Origin
This character appears to be a picture of an altar or a raised platform used in ancient rituals. The horizontal lines represent the structure of the altar, while the vertical lines form the posts or framework. Because priests and shamans would use altars to make offerings and communicate with gods or spirits, the character came to mean "show" or "display" — the altar was where things were revealed or made visible to the divine. Over time, the meaning broadened to include any act of showing or indicating something.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (示).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 113
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #237 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+0793A