字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

attire, dress, pretend, disguise, profess

On’yomi ソウ、ショウ
Kun’yomi よそお.う、よそお.い

Origin

The character combines a clothing radical at the bottom, which groups it with other garment-related words, with a sound hint at the top that suggests its pronunciation. The bottom part, meaning "clothing" or "garment," directly connects to the core sense of dress and attire. Over time, the meanings expanded from literal clothing to wearing something as a disguise or pretending to have a quality you don't actually possess, since putting on clothes is a form of outer covering that can conceal what lies beneath.

装 12 strokes

Components

  • 壮 sound hint top
  • 衣 radical bottom

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

Common words

  • 衣装 いしょう clothing; costume
  • 仮装 かそう costume; fancy dress
  • 改装 かいそう remodelling; remodeling
  • 正装 せいそう full dress; formal dress
  • 装う よそおう to dress (oneself in); to attire oneself in
  • 装甲 そうこう armoring; armouring
  • 装飾 そうしょく ornament; decoration
  • 装置 そうち equipment; device

Related kanji

Same sound component 壮
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
145
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#657 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+088C5