Meaning & readings
compilation, knit, plait, braid, twist, editing, completed poem, part of a book
Origin
This character combines the thread radical 糸 on the left with the component 扁 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the character's pronunciation. The thread radical makes sense because the core meaning involves working with threads—braiding, knitting, and weaving all require twisting fibers together. Over time, the meaning expanded metaphorically to "editing" and "compilation," since organizing written material is conceptually similar to arranging and interlocking threads into a coherent pattern. The right component 扁 doesn't contribute a meaning but simply helps indicate how the character should be pronounced.
Components
- 糸
- 扁
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 120
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #591 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+07DE8