Meaning & readings
hinder, hurt, harm
On’yomi ショウ
Kun’yomi さわ.る
Origin
The character 障 combines the "hand" radical on the left, which relates to physical action or touching, with the component 章 on the right that serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. The hand radical points toward the sense of "blocking" or "hindering" — actions performed by hands or limbs. Together, the character pictures the idea of something that gets in the way or obstructs, whether physically touching you or standing as an obstacle. Over time, the meaning broadened from literal blocking to more abstract notions of harm or hurt.
Components
- ⻖
- 章
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 14
- Kangxi radical
- 170
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #742 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0969C