Meaning & readings

stirred up, be invigorated, flourish

On’yomi フン
Kun’yomi ふる.う

Origin

This character combines the idea of vigorous movement with the image of a field. The top component suggests energetic action or stirring, while the bottom component is a picture of a rice field, a place of productive work. Together, these parts create the sense of being stirred up with energy and activity, like the bustling work that happens in a field during harvest or planting season. Over time, this visual idea of energetic movement and activity came to mean being invigorated or flourishing more broadly.

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

16 strokes

Components

  • meaning part top
  • meaning part bottom

Common words

  • 興奮 こうふん excitement; stimulation
  • 奮う ふるう to muster (e.g. one's courage); to call forth
  • 奮起 ふんき stirring; rousing oneself
  • 奮闘 ふんとう strenuous effort; hard struggle
  • 奮発 ふんぱつ strenuous efforts; exerting oneself
  • 奮って ふるって energetically; strenuously

Reference

Strokes
16
Kangxi radical
37
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1521 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0596E