Meaning & readings

abdomen, belly, stomach

On’yomi フク
Kun’yomi はら

Origin

This character combines the flesh radical , which marks body parts, on the left side with a sound hint component 复 on the right that suggests the pronunciation. The flesh radical makes clear this character refers to a part of the body rather than something abstract. The right component doesn't contribute meaning—it's purely there to hint at how the character should be pronounced. Together they create a character that points to the soft, fleshy part of the body between the ribs and hips: the abdomen or belly.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

13 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • お腹 おなか belly; abdomen
  • 空腹 くうふく empty stomach; hunger
  • 切腹 せっぷく seppuku; harakiri
  • 中腹 ちゅうふく halfway up (down) a mountain; mountainside
  • 腹心 ふくしん one's confidant; trusted friend
  • 腹痛 ふくつう stomach ache; abdominal pain
  • 腹部 ふくぶ abdomen; abdominal region
  • 満腹 まんぷく full stomach; filling one's stomach

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
130
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1286 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+08179