Meaning & readings
inferiority, be inferior to, be worse
On’yomi レツ
Kun’yomi おと.る
Origin
This character combines "few" or "small" (少) with "strength" or "power" (力) at the bottom. The idea is that having less power or strength means being inferior or weaker than something else. By putting the concept of smallness together with the concept of force, the character visually expresses the meaning of inferiority — you are at a disadvantage when you have diminished capability compared to others.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Common words
- 拙劣 せつれつ clumsy; unskillful
- 卑劣 ひれつ mean; contemptible
- 優劣 ゆうれつ (relative) merits; superiority or inferiority
- 劣る おとる to be inferior to; to be less good at
- 劣悪 れつあく poor (quality, conditions, etc.); bad
- 劣化 れっか deterioration (in quality, performance, etc.); degradation
- 劣勢 れっせい inferiority (e.g. numerical); inferior position
- 劣等感 れっとうかん inferiority complex; sense of inferiority
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 19
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1620 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+052A3