Meaning & readings

distribute, disseminate, partition, understand

On’yomi ハン
Kun’yomi わ.かつ、わ.ける

Origin

This character combines the head radical 頁 (which marks it as relating to the head or authority) with 分 on the left, which acts as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The base idea connects to dividing or distributing — when an authority figure or leader parts something into pieces, they are disseminating it to different people. The component 分 itself means "divide," so even as a sound hint it reinforces the sense of splitting up or apportioning, making the overall character feel naturally connected to the meanings of distribution and partition.

頒 13 strokes

Components

  • 分 sound hint left
  • 頁 radical right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 頒布 はんぷ distribution; circulation

Easily confused with

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

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
181
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#2287 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+09812