字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

intercept, interrupt, obstruct

On’yomi シャ
Kun’yomi さえぎ.る

Origin

This character combines a "path" or "road" radical on the left, which establishes the idea of movement or travel, with the sound component 庶 on the right that hints at the pronunciation. The visual concept works like this: when something blocks or intercepts a path, it stops movement in its tracks. The character's meaning of "intercept" or "obstruct" naturally grew from picturing something standing in the way of a journey or passage.

遮 14 strokes

Components

  • 庶 sound hint position.nyoc
  • ⻌ radical bottom-left wrap

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 遮る さえぎる to interrupt; to obstruct (a view, someone's way, etc.)
  • 遮断 しゃだん isolation; cut off
  • 遮断機 しゃだんき (railway) crossing gate; barrier (at a toll booth, parking lot, etc.)
  • 遮断器 しゃだんき circuit breaker

Related kanji

Same sound component 庶
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
14
Kangxi radical
162
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1865 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0906E