Meaning & readings

cape, spit, promontory

On’yomi
Kun’yomi さき、さい、みさき

Origin

This character combines earth or land on the left with a component suggesting something unusual or jutting out on the right. A cape or promontory is a distinctive piece of land that juts into the sea in an unexpected way, so the character's shape reflects this idea of earth taking on an odd or protruding form. The right component also carries the sound hint for pronunciation. Together, the parts visually suggest a geographical feature—a point of land that stands out from the coastline.

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

11 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • meaning part right

Common words

  • 埼玉 さいたま Saitama (city, prefecture)

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
32
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#971 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
Unicode
U+057FC