Meaning & readings
return, answer, fade, repay
On’yomi ヘン
Kun’yomi かえ.す、-かえ.す、かえ.る、-かえ.る
Origin
The character combines two parts: the left side is the "walk" or "movement" radical, which groups this character with other words about going and motion. The right component 反 serves as a sound hint, telling you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together, the walking radical paired with this sound component creates a character meaning "to return" or "go back" — the idea of moving in a direction, particularly moving back to where you started. The related meanings of "answer" and "repay" grew from this core sense of returning or giving something back.
Components
- 反
- ⻌
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 162
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #685 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08FD4