Meaning & readings
secret, conceal
On’yomi ヒ
Kun’yomi ひ.める、ひそ.か、かく.す
Origin
The character 秘 combines a grain or crop radical on the left—representing things grown in fields—with the phonetic component 必 on the right, which hints at its pronunciation. The meaning of "secret" or "conceal" most likely developed from the idea of hidden or guarded harvests, perhaps grain stores that were kept private and protected from view. Over time, the character came to represent secrecy more broadly, while the 必 component remained primarily as a sound guide rather than a meaning carrier.
Components
- 禾
- 必
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 115
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #862 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+079D8