Meaning & readings
camp, battle array, ranks, position, sudden, brief time
Origin
This character combines the earth or ground radical on the left, which suggests a physical location or arrangement, with the character for "vehicle" or "cart" on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The idea of organizing or positioning things on the ground — like arranging carts or soldiers in formation — led to the meanings of camp, battle array, and ranks. Over time, the character extended to mean any temporary arrangement or position, and eventually also "sudden" or "brief," perhaps from the sense of a hastily assembled formation.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- ⻖
- 車
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 出陣 しゅつじん going into battle; departure for the front
- 陣営 じんえい camp (supporters of a doctrine, party, etc.); faction (of a party)
- 陣地 じんち encampment; position
- 陣中 じんちゅう in camp; at the front
- 陣痛 じんつう labour pains; labor pains
- 陣容 じんよう battle formation; battle array
- 先陣 せんじん vanguard; advance guard
- 退陣 たいじん resignation; stepping down
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 170
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #828 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+09663