字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

station

On’yomi エキ

Origin

The character 駅 combines a horse radical on the left with a sound hint on the right. In ancient times, stations were places where horses and travelers stopped to rest and change mounts during long journeys, so the horse component makes sense for marking such places. The right side, 尺, tells you roughly how to pronounce the character but doesn't contribute to its meaning. Over time, the concept expanded from horse-changing stations to any kind of station where people and goods are exchanged or transferred.

駅 14 strokes

Components

  • 馬 radical left
  • 尺 sound hint right

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

Common words

  • 駅員 えきいん (train) station attendant; station employee
  • 駅前 えきまえ in front of a station
  • 駅長 えきちょう station master
  • 駅伝 えきでん long-distance relay race
  • 駅弁 えきべん boxed lunch bought at a station (often a local specialty)
  • 宿駅 しゅくえき relay station; post station
  • 終着駅 しゅうちゃくえき terminal station

Related kanji

Same sound component 尺
Same radical

Easily confused with

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

Reference

Strokes
14
Kangxi radical
187
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#724 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 4
Unicode
U+099C5