Meaning & readings
young, if, perhaps, possibly, low number, immature
On’yomi ジャク、ニャク、ニャ
Kun’yomi わか.い、わか-、も.しくわ、も.し、も.しくは、ごと.し
Nanori わく、わこ
Origin
The character 若 combines a grass radical at the top with the character for "right" at the bottom. Young plants and shoots are a natural symbol for youth and newness, which is why the grass component relates to the primary meaning of "young." The bottom component contributes to the sound, as this character is pronounced "waka" in Japanese. Over time, the "young" sense extended to related ideas like "immature" and "inexperienced," and eventually the character also came to mean "if" or "perhaps"—possibly because something young or new is uncertain or changeable in nature.
Components
- 艹
- 右
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 140
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #458 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+082E5