Meaning & readings

sound, noise

On’yomi オン、イン、-ノン
Kun’yomi おと、ね
Nanori お、と

Origin

This character combines two parts to represent sound. The top part (, meaning to stand or position) suggests something rising or emanating, while the bottom part (, a square representing the mouth or an opening) evokes the mouth as the source of sound. Together, they picture how sound originates from a person's mouth and travels outward into space. Over time, the character came to represent sound and noise more generally, not just vocal sound.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

9 strokes

Components

  • meaning part top
  • meaning part bottom

Common words

  • 音階 おんかい scale
  • 音楽 おんがく music
  • 音響 おんきょう sound; noise
  • 音訓 おんくん kanji readings
  • 音質 おんしつ tone quality; sound quality
  • 音声 おんせい voice; speech
  • 音程 おんてい interval; step
  • 音頭 おんど lead (in a cheer, toast, song, etc.); (someone's) lead

Reference

Strokes
9
Kangxi radical
180
Grade
Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#491 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+097F3