Meaning & readings
Inst., institution, temple, mansion, school
Origin
The character 院 combines the "building" radical on the left, which suggests an enclosed structure or institution, with the component 完 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the Chinese pronunciation. The building radical already carried associations with formal structures like temples and mansions, making it suitable for words about institutions and official places. Over time, this character came to represent various kinds of organized buildings and establishments, from Buddhist temples to schools to government offices.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- ⻖
- 完
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 医院 いいん doctor's office; doctor's surgery
- 院長 いんちょう director (of a hospital, institution, academy, etc.); superintendent
- 下院 かいん lower house; lower legislative chamber
- 学院 がくいん institute; academy
- 議院 ぎいん parliament; congress
- 参院 さんいん House of Councillors (upper house of the National Diet of Japan)
- 寺院 じいん Buddhist temple
- 衆院 しゅういん House of Representatives (lower house of the National Diet of Japan)
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 170
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #150 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+09662