Origin

The kanji 種 combines the radical 禾, which shows a grain plant and suggests agricultural or plant-related concepts, with the character 重 on the right, which serves as a sound hint indicating the character's pronunciation. The presence of the grain radical makes sense because seeds are what plants produce and scatter to create new plants of the same kind. The right component tells you roughly how to say the character but doesn't directly add meaning. Together, the visual symbol for plants paired with this sound element created a character meaning seed and, by extension, variety or kind.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).