Meaning & readings

bridegroom, son-in-law

On’yomi セイ
Kun’yomi むこ

Origin

The character combines a woman () on the left with a component suggesting a person of a certain role on the right. The left side indicates this character relates to family relationships involving women, while the right side contributes both sound and meaning to suggest a male family member. Together they form a character for a man who enters a family through marriage—either a bridegroom or a son-in-law. The placement of the woman component as a classifier helps establish that this is specifically about a male figure defined by his relationship to the family unit.

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

婿 12 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • meaning part right

Common words

  • 花婿 はなむこ bridegroom
  • 娘婿 むすめむこ son-in-law

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
38
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#2099 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+05A7F