Meaning & readings

dangerous, fear, uneasy

On’yomi
Kun’yomi あぶ.ない、あや.うい、あや.ぶむ

Origin

The character combines two parts to express the idea of danger. The top component suggests something precarious or unstable, while the bottom component relates to misfortune or bad luck. Together, these elements create a picture of an unstable, unfortunate situation—something that threatens harm and causes fear. This visual combination of instability and misfortune naturally came to mean dangerous or uneasy.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

6 strokes

Components

  • 𠂊 meaning part top
  • meaning part bottom

Common words

  • 危害 きがい injury; harm
  • 危機 きき crisis; critical situation
  • 危急 ききゅう emergency; crisis
  • 危険 きけん danger; peril
  • 危篤 きとく critical condition; being on the verge of death
  • 危惧 きぐ apprehension; misgivings
  • 危うい あやうい dangerous; in danger
  • 危うく あやうく barely; narrowly

Reference

Strokes
6
Kangxi radical
26
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#606 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+05371