Meaning & readings
follow, though, notwithstanding, while, during, both, all, obey, submit to, comply, at the mercy of (the waves)
Origin
This character most likely combines the idea of "following" through its components. The left side relates to movement or walking, while the right side suggests something that goes along or is responsive. The character's shape developed to picture the concept of moving along with something else or yielding to circumstances. Over time, this visual idea of one thing accompanying another came to mean "follow," "accompany," or broader senses like "during" or "though" — situations where one thing goes along with another.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (随).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 170
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1396 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0968F