Meaning & readings
various, many, several, together
On’yomi ショ
Kun’yomi もろ
Origin
The character 諸 combines the speech radical 言 on the left, which marks it as a word related to language or statements, with 者 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. The 言 component suggests this character deals with speaking or expressing ideas. When you say many things or speak of multiple items together, you're acknowledging "various" or "several" things at once. Over time, this evolved to mean "various" or "many" more broadly, beyond just speech contexts.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 149
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #658 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08AF8