Meaning & readings
tool, utensil, means, possess, ingredients, counter for armor, suits, sets of furniture
Origin
The character 具 most likely comes from a picture of a tool or container. The shape suggests a box or vessel with something inside it, representing the idea of holding or containing things. Since tools and utensils are things that are gathered together and held in a container, the meaning expanded from the picture of a filled container to mean "tool," "utensil," or "ingredient." Over time, the character came to mean more broadly "to possess" or "to have," since having tools means you have the means to do something.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (具).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 12
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #629 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05177