Meaning & readings

climate, season, weather, wait for, expect

On’yomi コウ
Kun’yomi そうろう

Origin

This character combines a person radical on the left with a sound component on the right that hints at pronunciation. The left side, showing a person, suggests this relates to human observation or waiting—activities a person does. The right component indicates roughly how the character should be pronounced. Over time, the meaning expanded from the basic sense of "waiting" or "watching for something" to include the related idea of observing seasonal patterns and weather conditions—things people watch and wait for as they change throughout the year.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

10 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • 矦V 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

  • 気候 きこう climate
  • 居候 いそうろう lodger who pays nothing for room and board; freeloader
  • 候補 こうほ candidate; contender
  • 症候 しょうこう symptom
  • 天候 てんこう weather
  • 兆候 ちょうこう sign; indication
  • 悪天候 あくてんこう bad weather
  • 候補者 こうほしゃ candidate; applicant

Reference

Strokes
10
Kangxi radical
9
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#510 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+05019