Meaning & readings

cosmetics, adorn (one's person)

On’yomi ショウ
Nanori さ

Origin

This character combines the rice radical 米 on the left, which signals that the character relates to grain or powder-like substances, with 庄 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. In ancient times, cosmetics were often made from powdered rice and other grain-based materials, so using the rice radical made sense for a character meaning cosmetics or adornment. The 庄 component doesn't contribute to the meaning but tells readers roughly how to pronounce the character.

粧 12 strokes

Components

  • 米 radical left
  • 庄 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 化粧 けしょう make-up; makeup

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
119
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1545 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+07CA7