Meaning & readings
tyrannize, oppress
On’yomi ギャク
Kun’yomi しいた.げる
Origin
This character appears to depict a person being harmed or controlled by another. The shape shows a figure in a submissive or distressed posture, which directly conveys the sense of being oppressed or forced into hardship. Over time, this visual image of domination became the standard way to write the word for tyranny and oppression in Japanese.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (虐).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 141
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1464 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+08650