Meaning & readings
incense, smell, perfume
On’yomi コウ、キョウ
Kun’yomi か、かお.り、かお.る
Nanori こ、こお、ひゃん、よし
Origin
The top part, 禾, pictures grain or rice plants, which were valued in ancient China. The bottom part, 日, represents the sun. Together, these suggest something precious ripening under the sun — likely referring to the fragrant grains used to make incense and perfume. Over time, the character shifted to mean "incense," "fragrance," or "smell" more broadly, since pleasant scents were often derived from aromatic plants and grains. The visual combination captures the idea that good smells come from natural, sun-ripened plants.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 禾
- 日
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 186
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #859 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+09999