Meaning & readings
neighboring
On’yomi リン
Kun’yomi とな.る、となり
Nanori ちか
Origin
The character 隣 is built from the radical for "neighbor" or "adjacent" on the left side, which establishes the meaning. On the right is a sound component that hints at the pronunciation without contributing to the meaning itself — it's essentially a phonetic guide to help readers know how to say the character. Together, these parts create a character that literally refers to something next to you, which is what a neighbor is. Over time, the character became the standard way to write the word for "neighboring" or "adjacent person."
Components
- ⻖
- 粦
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 近隣 きんりん neighbourhood; neighborhood
- 善隣 ぜんりん good neighbour; good neighbor
- 隣家 りんか neighbouring house; neighboring house
- 隣人 りんじん neighbour; neighbor
- 隣接 りんせつ adjacency; contiguity
- 隣国 りんごく neighbouring country; neighboring country
- 隣室 りんしつ next or adjoining room
- 隣り合う となりあう to adjoin each other; to sit side by side
Reference
- Strokes
- 16
- Kangxi radical
- 170
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1083 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+096A3