Meaning & readings
prize, reward, praise
On’yomi ショウ
Kun’yomi ほ.める
Origin
The character 賞 combines a sound hint with a meaning indicator. The bottom part, 貝 (shellfish or treasure), is a classifier that points to wealth and valuables—things given as rewards. The top part, 尚, provides a sound hint for how to pronounce the character. Together, the shape conveys the idea of presenting something valuable as praise or a reward for merit.
Common words
- 観賞 かんしょう admiration; appreciation
- 鑑賞 かんしょう appreciation (of art, music, poetry, etc.)
- 懸賞 けんしょう offering a prize; prize competition
- 受賞 じゅしょう winning a prize; receiving an award
- 授賞 じゅしょう awarding a prize; giving an award
- 賞金 しょうきん prize money; monetary award
- 賞状 しょうじょう certificate of merit; testimonial
- 賞罰 しょうばつ reward and punishment
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 154
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #426 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08CDE