Meaning & readings
tune, tone, meter, key (music), writing style, prepare, exorcise, investigate, harmonize, mediate
On’yomi チョウ
Kun’yomi しら.べる、しら.べ、ととの.う、ととの.える
Nanori ぎ、つぎ
Origin
The character 調 combines the component 言, which means "words" or "speech," with 周, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The core idea is that this character refers to how words are arranged, phrased, or given structure—essentially their tone, style, or manner of expression. Over time, this extended to mean tuning or preparing things generally, since both adjusting speech and adjusting a musical instrument involve bringing something into proper order. The left component 言 acts as a classifier to show this is about language and communication, while 周 on the right tells you roughly how to pronounce it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 149
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #87 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08ABF