Meaning & readings
No., residence
On’yomi ダイ、テイ
Origin
The character 第 combines bamboo (竹) with a sound hint (弟, pronounced "tei") at the bottom. Bamboo was used to make strips for writing and recording, so the bamboo radical came to represent orderly sequences and numbering. The sound component 弟 indicates roughly how to pronounce the character. Over time, 第 developed the meaning of "number" or ordinal position (like first, second, third), and later also came to mean a residence or mansion, possibly because ordinal numbers were used to designate houses in a sequence.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Common words
- 次第 しだい depending on
- 第一 だいいち first; foremost
- 第二 だいに second
- 落第 らくだい failure (in an examination); failing to advance (to the next year)
- 次第に しだいに gradually; by degrees
- 第一歩 だいいっぽ first step
- 第三者 だいさんしゃ third party; third person
- 第一声 だいいっせい first words said (e.g. when meeting someone); first thing out of one's mouth
Reference
- Strokes
- 11
- Kangxi radical
- 118
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #160 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+07B2C