Meaning & readings

fabricate, build, construct

On’yomi チク
Kun’yomi きず.く
Nanori つい、つき、つく、づき

Origin

The character combines two meaningful parts: the upper component 筑, which represents the act of pounding or ramming earth, and the lower component , which means wood or tree. Together, these parts evoke the process of construction—pounding earth and working with wood are both fundamental building activities. The character originally depicted the labor and materials involved in creating structures, which is why it came to mean "build" or "construct."

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

16 strokes

Components

  • meaning part top
  • meaning part bottom

Common words

  • 改築 かいちく structural alteration (of a building); reconstruction
  • 建築 けんちく construction; architecture (of buildings)
  • 構築 こうちく construction; building
  • 新築 しんちく new building; new construction
  • 築く きずく to build; to construct
  • 築山 つきやま artificial hill (in a garden)
  • 築地 ついじ mud wall with a roof; roofed mud wall
  • 建築家 けんちくか architect

Reference

Strokes
16
Kangxi radical
118
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#821 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+07BC9