Meaning & readings

naked, nude, uncovered, partially clothed

On’yomi ラ
Kun’yomi はだか

Origin

The character 裸 combines a clothing radical on the left, which signals the category of "clothes" or "covering," with the component 果 on the right that serves as a sound hint, telling you roughly how to pronounce the character. The meaning comes from the contrast: while the radical refers to clothing, the overall character describes a state of having no clothes or being uncovered. The visual pairing essentially represents the absence or removal of what the clothing radical normally represents.

裸 13 strokes

Components

  • 衤 radical left
  • 果 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

  • 裸足 はだし barefoot
  • 裸婦 らふ nude woman; female nude

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
145
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1796 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+088F8