Meaning & readings
dry, parch, ebb, recede, interfere, intercede
Origin
The character 干 appears to be a picture of a wooden pole or stick laid flat. In ancient Chinese, this simple shape came to represent the idea of something drying out or being spread thin—much like clothes hung on a pole to dry in the sun. Over time, the meaning expanded to include related concepts like "ebb" (water receding) and even "interfere" (to stick into or obstruct, like a pole blocking a path). The basic image of a straight, simple object became a versatile character capturing the sense of something exposed, diminished, or intruding.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (干).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 3
- Kangxi radical
- 51
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1349 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05E72