Meaning & readings
dilute, thin, weak (tea), pampas grass
On’yomi ハク
Kun’yomi うす.い、うす-、-うす、うす.める、うす.まる、うす.らぐ、うす.ら-、うす.れる、すすき
Origin
This character combines a grass radical at the top with the component 溥 below, which serves as a sound hint suggesting the pronunciation "haku". The grass component indicates the character relates to plants—specifically pampas grass, a thin, delicate grass. Over time, the meaning expanded from this slender grass plant to the general concept of anything thin or dilute, since thinness is a natural quality associated with grass blades and other vegetation. The visual connection between thin grass and thin liquids or weak tea helped the meaning broaden beyond just the plant itself.
Components
- 艹
- 溥
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
- 140
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1009 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08584