字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

hit, right, appropriate, himself

On’yomi トウ
Kun’yomi あ.たる、あ.たり、あ.てる、あ.て、まさ.に、まさ.にべし
Nanori たい

Origin

This character appears to be a phono-semantic compound where the top part provides a sound hint for pronunciation (sounding like "tou"), while the bottom component classifies it as relating to a target or goal. The idea of "hitting" or "striking" a target naturally led to the meanings "hit" and "right" — when you hit your target, you get the right answer. Over time, "right" and "appropriate" became the main meanings, and "himself" developed as a reflexive sense of hitting or applying something directly to oneself.

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

当 6 strokes

Components

  • ⺌ sound hint top
  • ⺕ radical bottom

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

Common words

  • 穏当 おんとう proper; reasonable
  • 過当 かとう excessive; exorbitant
  • 該当 がいとう corresponding to; being applicable to
  • 見当 けんとう estimate; guess
  • 充当 じゅうとう allocation; appropriation
  • 正当 せいとう just; justifiable
  • 相当 そうとう corresponding to (in meaning, function, etc.); being equivalent to
  • 妥当 だとう valid; proper

Related kanji

Same sound component ⺌
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
6
Kangxi radical
58
Grade
Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#91 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+05F53