Meaning & readings
solution, answer
On’yomi トウ
Kun’yomi こた.える、こた.え
Nanori どう
Origin
The character 答 combines bamboo on top with a component meaning "fit together" or "combine" below. Bamboo was historically a common material for writing slips and records in East Asia, so it came to represent anything written or recorded. When you combine something written with the idea of things fitting together or matching, you get the notion of an answer—something that fits with or responds to a question. Over time, this visual combination came to represent the abstract idea of a solution or response.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 118
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #486 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+07B54