Meaning & readings
right
On’yomi ウ、ユウ
Kun’yomi みぎ
Nanori あき、すけ
Origin
This character appears to be a pictograph representing a hand or arm. In ancient writing, the shape roughly depicted an open hand or the right side of the body, which led naturally to the meaning "right" — as in the right hand or right direction. Over time, the strokes became more geometric and stylized, but the connection between the character's shape and the concept of rightness remained. The character is still used in modern Japanese to indicate the right side, direction, or hand.
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 (右).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #602 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+053F3