Meaning & readings

ticket

On’yomi ケン

Origin

This character combines a sound hint with the knife radical. The knife component at the bottom suggests something that cuts or divides, which connects to the original meaning of "" as a slip or document that can be torn or separated from others. The upper component provides a pronunciation hint for how the character should be read. Over time, the meaning evolved from a physical slip or voucher to the modern sense of a ticket or certificate, but the knife radical remained to show the category of things being represented.

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

8 strokes

Components

  • 𠔉 sound hint top
  • radical bottom

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 株券 かぶけん stock certificate
  • 債券 さいけん bond; debenture
  • 証券 しょうけん bond; bill
  • 旅券 りょけん passport
  • 馬券 ばけん betting ticket; betting slip
  • 回数券 かいすうけん coupon tickets; discount tickets
  • 航空券 こうくうけん airline ticket; plane ticket
  • 商品券 しょうひんけん gift certificate

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
18
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#583 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+05238