Meaning & readings
astray, be perplexed, in doubt, lost, err, illusion
Origin
This character combines a meaning component and a sound hint. The radical on the left, which represents a path or way, suggests the idea of movement or direction. The component on the right, which sounds like "mei," provides a pronunciation hint but doesn't directly contribute to the meaning. Together, the character depicts someone wandering off the correct path or losing their way, which led to the extended meanings of being confused, perplexed, or caught in illusion. The visual idea of straying from a path naturally captures what it means to be lost or mistaken.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 米
- 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
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 162
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #942 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08FF7