Meaning & readings
sew, stitch, embroider
On’yomi ホウ
Kun’yomi ぬ.う
Nanori ぬい
Origin
This character combines thread (糸, the silk radical on the left) with a sound hint (逢 on the right) that helps indicate the pronunciation. The silk radical naturally represents the material and concept of sewing work. The right component 逢 doesn't add meaning about sewing itself, but historically it provided a sound clue to help readers pronounce the character. Together they build a character that means to sew or stitch—the thread radical carries the core meaning while the sound hint guides pronunciation.
Components
- 糸
- 逢
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 16
- Kangxi radical
- 120
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1723 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+07E2B