Meaning & readings
stab, protruding, thrust, pierce, prick, collision, sudden
On’yomi トツ、カ
Kun’yomi つ.く
Origin
The character 突 combines the idea of a hole or cave (穴, shown at the top) with something large or expansive (大, at the bottom). The visual suggests something pushing outward or bursting through an opening, like when something protrudes or pierces through. Over time, this image of forceful penetration or emergence became associated with meanings like stabbing, thrusting, and collision. The compound captures how a sudden, forceful action breaks through a barrier.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 116
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #521 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+07A81