Meaning & readings
go upstream, retrace the past
On’yomi ソ、サク
Kun’yomi さかのぼ.る
Origin
The character combines two parts. The left component 朔 relates to the beginning or first appearance of something, while the right component 辶 is a classifying radical that indicates motion or travel along a path. Together they create the idea of moving backward through time or space to an origin point — going upstream to trace something back to where it started. The shape essentially shows the concept of traveling backward to reach the beginning.
Components
- 朔
- 辶
Common words
- 遡る さかのぼる to go upstream; to go up (a river)
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 13
- Kangxi radical
- 162
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- —
- Former JLPT
- —
- Unicode
- U+09061