Meaning & readings

ought, by all means, necessarily

On’yomi ス、シュ
Kun’yomi すべから.く、すべし、ひげ、まつ、もち.いる、もと.める
Nanori もとむ、ぞ

Origin

This character combines two components to suggest obligation or necessity. The right side, 頁, depicts a head or face—representing a person. The left side, 彡, shows three lines suggesting hair or whiskers, emphasizing the human form. Together, these create an image of a person as they inherently or naturally are, which evolved to mean something that is essential or necessarily required of that person. The character thus visually conveys the idea of something one ought to do by nature or necessity.

須 12 strokes

Components

  • 彡 radical left
  • 頁 radical right

Common words

  • 必須 ひっす indispensable; essential
  • 必須条件 ひっすじょうけん essential condition

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
181
Formation type
Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1339 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+09808