Meaning & readings
slow, late, back, later
Origin
This character combines the "movement" component on the left (which shows walking or traveling) with a sound component on the right that suggests how the character is pronounced. The left part indicates that this character relates to motion or going somewhere, while the right component provides a phonetic hint for pronunciation rather than additional meaning. Together, the shape came to mean "slow" or "late" because when you move or travel slowly, you fall behind or arrive after others—you are delayed in your progress. The character essentially pictures the idea of movement that doesn't keep pace with normal speed.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (遅).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 162
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #833 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+09045