Meaning & readings
soldier, private, troops, army, warfare, strategy, tactics
On’yomi ヘイ、ヒョウ
Kun’yomi つわもの
Nanori へ
Origin
The character 兵 combines two elements to suggest the idea of soldiers or troops. The top component 丘 originally represented a mound or raised place, which evokes a military formation or strategic position where soldiers gather. The bottom component 八 means to divide or separate, suggesting the organized splitting of people into military units. Together, these parts create an image of people assembled and divided into an organized force—the essence of an army or troops under command.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 12
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #522 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05175