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.

遡 13 strokes

Components

  • 朔 meaning part position.nyoc
  • 辶 radical bottom-left wrap

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