Meaning & readings

provisions, food, bread

On’yomi リョウ、ロウ
Kun’yomi かて

Origin

The character 糧 combines rice (米), the basic component for grain and food, on the left side with 量 on the right, which serves as a sound hint suggesting the pronunciation. The left-side rice radical immediately signals that this character deals with grain or food provisions. The right component doesn't add meaning but rather tells you roughly how to say the character — similar to how many Japanese characters pair a meaningful radical with a sound guide. Together, this visual pairing efficiently combines "what it is" (rice and food) with "how to say it" (the sound hint), creating the word for provisions or foodstuffs.

糧 18 strokes

Components

  • 米 radical left
  • 量 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

  • 食糧 しょくりょう food (esp. staple food such as rice or wheat); provisions
  • 糧食 りょうしょく provisions
  • 兵糧 ひょうろう (army) provisions; food
  • 食糧庁 しょくりょうちょう food agency

Reference

Strokes
18
Kangxi radical
119
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1354 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+07CE7