Meaning & readings
ray, light
On’yomi コウ
Kun’yomi ひか.る、ひかり
Nanori あき、あきら、こお、てる、ひこ、み、みつ
Origin
The character 光 appears to combine two visual ideas to show the concept of light. The top part represents fire or brightness, while the bottom part suggests something standing up or emanating outward. Together, these components create an image of light radiating upward and outward from a source, like flames or rays spreading into the sky. This combination of "fire" and "rising up" naturally conveys the meaning of a bright ray or beam of light.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- ⺌
- 兀
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 10
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #527 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+05149