Meaning & readings
excel, excellence, beauty, surpass
On’yomi シュウ
Kun’yomi ひい.でる
Nanori しゅ、しょう、ひで、ひでし、ほ
Origin
The character combines a picture of grain or rice plants (the top part) with a shape suggesting growth or emergence (the bottom part). Together, these elements show a plant that stands out from others — grain that grows taller and stronger than the rest. This image of exceptional growth came to represent excellence and surpassing others more broadly. The character essentially depicts something that excels by its very nature, which is why it means to excel or possess beauty and superiority.
Components
- 禾
- 乃
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 115
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #848 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+079C0