Meaning & readings
repress, well, now, in the first place, push, shove, press, seal, do in spite of
Origin
This character shows a hand (the left component) pushing down on something, which represents the action of repressing or holding back. The right component suggests a constraint or resistance being overcome by force. The image of physically pressing or pushing down naturally came to mean "to repress" or "to suppress," as when you push something down to keep it in place. Over time, the meaning expanded to include related senses like "to restrain" and even "now" or "well" as transitional expressions in speech, similar to how a pause holds back the flow of words.
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 (抑).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 64
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #834 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+06291