Meaning & readings
gate, counter for cannons
On’yomi モン
Kun’yomi かど、と
Nanori じょう、も、ゆき
Origin
This character is a simple picture of a gate or doorway. The two vertical strokes on the sides represent the pillars or posts of a gate, while the horizontal strokes across the middle and top represent the crossbeams and frame that hold the structure together. The enclosed space in the middle shows the opening where you pass through. Over time, this straightforward drawing of a gate's basic shape became the standard written form, and the character naturally came to mean "gate" or "doorway" in general.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (門).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 169
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #452 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+09580