Meaning & readings
shrink, contract, shrivel, wrinkle, reduce
On’yomi シュク
Kun’yomi ちぢ.む、ちぢ.まる、ちぢ.める、ちぢ.れる、ちぢ.らす
Origin
This character combines the thread radical 糸 on the left, which marks it as related to textiles or fibers, with the component 宿 on the right that provides a sound hint for the pronunciation シュク. The connection to shrinking and contracting comes from the thread component—when fabric or thread gets wet or is treated certain ways, it shrinks and becomes smaller. The right side tells you roughly how to pronounce the character, while the left side points you toward the textile meaning. Together, the character visually suggests something about threads becoming smaller or contracted.
Common words
- 圧縮 あっしゅく compression
- 恐縮 きょうしゅく feeling (much) obliged; being (very) grateful
- 凝縮 ぎょうしゅく condensation (of ideas, emotions, etc.); concentration
- 緊縮 きんしゅく tightening; shrinkage
- 軍縮 ぐんしゅく reduction of armaments; disarmament
- 収縮 しゅうしゅく contraction; shrinking
- 縮む ちぢむ to shrink; to contract
- 縮尺 しゅくしゃく reduced scale; scaling down
Reference
- Strokes
- 17
- Kangxi radical
- 120
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #909 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+07E2E