字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

radiance, shine, sparkle, gleam, twinkle

On’yomi キ
Kun’yomi かがや.く
Nanori あき、あきら、さき、てる、ひ、ひかる

Origin

The character 輝 combines light with a sound hint. The left component 光 means light or radiance, directly conveying the character's meaning of shining brightly. The right component 軍 doesn't refer to an army here — it's included mainly to suggest the pronunciation, similar to how many Japanese kanji pair a meaningful element with a phonetic guide. Together, the character visually represents the idea of light shining forth brightly.

輝 15 strokes

Components

  • 光 meaning part left
  • 軍 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 輝き かがやき brightness; brilliance
  • 輝く かがやく to shine; to sparkle
  • 輝度 きど brightness; luminance
  • 光輝 こうき brightness; splendour
  • 輝かしい かがやかしい brilliant; glorious
  • 光り輝く ひかりかがやく to shine; to glitter

Related kanji

Same sound component 軍
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
15
Kangxi radical
159
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1259 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+08F1D