Meaning & readings
tie, bind, contract, join, organize, do up hair, fasten
Origin
This character combines a thread or string radical on the left, which points to the idea of binding or tying, with the component for "good" on the right, which serves as a sound hint rather than adding to the meaning. The thread radical 糸 was a natural choice because tying, binding, and joining all involve working with threads or rope. Over time, the character's meaning expanded from the physical act of tying string to more abstract senses like forming contracts or organizing things, but the image of thread remains at the core. The "good" component doesn't contribute meaning—it's there primarily to suggest how the character should be pronounced.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 120
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #162 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+07D50