Meaning & readings
acid, bitterness, sour, tart
On’yomi サン
Kun’yomi す.い
Origin
The left component 酉 is the traditional classifier for alcohol and fermented things, which already hints at sour or acidic flavors that develop through fermentation. The right component 夋 serves as a sound hint, suggesting how to pronounce the character roughly like "san." Together, these parts create a character that visually signals "something sour or acidic related to fermented drinks or alcohol," which naturally led to meanings like acid and bitterness.
Components
- 酉
- 夋
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 14
- Kangxi radical
- 164
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1218 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+09178