Meaning & readings
exhort, urge, encourage
Origin
The character combines two parts: the component 将 at the top provides a sound hint for pronunciation (roughly "sho"), while 大 at the bottom is a classifying radical meaning "big" or "great." Together they suggest the idea of making something great or pushing something forward — the core sense of encouraging or urging someone on. The 大 component acts as a semantic indicator that this character relates to grand action or forceful movement, which aligns with the meaning of exhorting or encouraging. Over time, this combination came to represent the concept of spurring someone toward a goal.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Common words
- 勧奨 かんしょう encouragement; stimulation
- 奨励 しょうれい encouragement; promotion
- 推奨 すいしょう recommendation; endorsement
- 選奨 せんしょう recommendation
- 奨学 しょうがく encouragement to study
- 奨学金 しょうがくきん scholarship; stipend
- 報奨金 ほうしょうきん cash bonus; reward
- 推奨環境 すいしょうかんきょう system requirements (i.e. recommended hardware and software to run a package)
Reference
- Strokes
- 13
- Kangxi radical
- 37
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1445 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05968