Meaning & readings
admonish, commandment
On’yomi ケイ
Kun’yomi いまし.める
Origin
The character 警 combines the sound component 敬, which indicates its pronunciation, with 言 meaning "words" or "speech" at the bottom. Since the character is about admonishment and commands, the 言 component makes sense—warnings and commandments are things that are spoken or communicated. The top part 敬 doesn't contribute a meaning here; it mainly tells you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together, these parts create a character that represents the idea of words meant to warn, correct, or command someone.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 19
- Kangxi radical
- 149
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #366 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08B66