Meaning & readings
sponsor, hold (a meeting), give (a dinner)
Origin
The left component, a person radical, shows this character relates to human action or gathering. The right side, which sounds like "sai," serves as a sound hint to indicate how the character is pronounced. When you combine a person doing something with the sound indicator for sai, you get a character meaning to sponsor or organize — essentially, a person bringing others together for an event like a meeting or dinner. Over time, the specific sense narrowed to actions like holding or sponsoring such gatherings.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 亻
- 崔
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 開催 かいさい holding (a conference, exhibition, etc.); opening
- 共催 きょうさい joint sponsorship (of an event); cosponsorship
- 催し もよおし event; festivities
- 催す もよおす to hold (an event); to give (a dinner, party, etc.)
- 催促 さいそく pressing; urging
- 催眠 さいみん hypnosis
- 主催 しゅさい sponsorship (i.e. conducting under one's auspices); promotion
- 催涙 さいるい tear-inducing
Reference
- Strokes
- 13
- Kangxi radical
- 9
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #536 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+050AC