Meaning & readings
permit, approve
On’yomi キョ
Kun’yomi ゆる.す、もと
Origin
The character 許 combines the speech radical 言 on the left, which marks characters related to words and communication, with 午 on the right as a sound hint suggesting the character's pronunciation. The meaning of "permit" or "approve" grows naturally from the idea of speaking words that grant permission—when someone says yes, they are using language to allow something. The overall structure thus connects the act of speaking to the specific type of speech act that grants approval.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 11
- Kangxi radical
- 149
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #720 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08A31