Meaning & readings
revolve, turn around, change
On’yomi テン
Kun’yomi ころ.がる、ころ.げる、ころ.がす、ころ.ぶ、まろ.ぶ、うたた、うつ.る、くる.めく
Origin
The character combines the radical for "vehicle" or "wheel" on the left with a sound hint on the right that suggests the pronunciation テン. The wheel component points toward the core meaning: wheels and vehicles naturally roll and turn around, which led to the broader sense of "revolve" or "change direction." Over time, the character expanded to mean any kind of turning or transformation, not just physical rotation. The sound hint component doesn't contribute to the meaning—it simply helped speakers remember how to pronounce the character.
Components
- 車
- 云
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 移転 いてん moving; relocation
- 運転 うんてん operation (of a machine); running
- 横転 おうてん toppling sideways; turning sideways
- 回転 かいてん rotation; revolution
- 逆転 ぎゃくてん reversal (of a situation); turnaround
- 空転 くうてん racing (of an engine); idling
- 好転 こうてん changing for the better
- 転嫁 てんか imputation; shifting (blame, responsibility, etc.)
Reference
- Strokes
- 11
- Kangxi radical
- 159
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #327 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+08EE2