Meaning & readings

lie down, sleep, rest, bed, remain unsold

On’yomi シン
Kun’yomi ね.る、ね.かす、い.ぬ、みたまや、や.める

Origin

This character combines a roof radical at the top, which represents a building or enclosed space where one rests, with a sound-hint component at the bottom that suggests how the character is pronounced. The roof component makes sense for "sleep" since sleeping happens indoors, in bed, under shelter. The lower part doesn't add to the meaning but instead acts as a phonetic guide to help readers know roughly how to say the character. Together, the roof establishes the concept of rest or sleep, while the bottom component anchors the pronunciation.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

13 strokes

Components

  • radical top
  • しょうへん+けいがしら+冖+ sound hint bottom

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 就寝 しゅうしん going to bed; retiring (for the night)
  • 寝る ねる to sleep (lying down)
  • 寝顔 ねがお sleeping face
  • 寝具 しんぐ bedding; bedclothes
  • 寝言 ねごと talking in one's sleep; somniloquy
  • 寝室 しんしつ bedroom
  • 寝床 ねどこ bed; berth
  • 寝息 ねいき breathing of a sleeping person

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
40
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1034 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+05BDD