字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

cord, rope, searching, inquiring

On’yomi サク

Origin

This character appears to be a picture of a rope or cord, shown with the twisted strands suggested by the vertical lines and horizontal elements woven through them. The shape resembles how rope looks when drawn simply with crossing strokes that evoke the braided or twisted structure of cordage. From the concrete meaning of rope, the character came to mean searching or inquiring, likely because you "search" or "seek out" something by following a line or cord, much as you might follow a thread to trace something. The sense of pursuing or reaching for something developed naturally from this visual connection.

索 10 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (索).

  • 索 meaning part

Common words

  • 検索 けんさく looking up (e.g. a word in a dictionary); search (e.g. on the Internet)
  • 索引 さくいん index (in a book)
  • 思索 しさく speculation; thinking
  • 捜索 そうさく search (esp. for someone or something missing); manhunt
  • 探索 たんさく search; lookup
  • 模索 もさく groping (for); fumbling around (for)
  • 検索条件 けんさくじょうけん search criteria

Related kanji

Same radical

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
10
Kangxi radical
120
Formation type
Pictographic or simple
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1127 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+07D22