Meaning & readings
slacken, loosen, relax, lessen, be moderate, ease
On’yomi カン
Kun’yomi ゆる.い、ゆる.やか、ゆる.む、ゆる.める
Nanori ひろ
Origin
The left part, 糸, is a silk thread radical that signals this character relates to fabric or textiles. The right part, 爰, provides a sound hint for how to pronounce the character. When a thread or rope is loosened and slack, it naturally becomes limp and less taut — this image of relaxed, slackened fibers gave the character its meanings of "loosen," "relax," and "ease." Over time the character came to apply these ideas more broadly to anything that becomes less tight or intense.
Components
- 糸
- 爰
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
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #933 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+07DE9