Meaning & readings
foothold, based on, follow, therefore
Origin
The left component 扌 is a hand radical, suggesting an action done by the hand. The right component 処 serves as a sound hint, telling you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together, the character developed to mean "to grasp" or "to base oneself on something" — the idea of taking a firm hand-grip on a position or foothold. From this concrete sense of grasping came the extended meanings of "following" something or reasoning "based on" it, since basing yourself on something is like grasping it as your foundation.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 扌
- 処
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 拠点 きょてん base (of operations); site
- 根拠 こんきょ basis; grounds
- 準拠 じゅんきょ being based on; following (a rule, guidelines, etc.)
- 証拠 しょうこ evidence; proof
- 占拠 せんきょ occupation; taking and maintaining exclusive control (of a location)
- 本拠 ほんきょ stronghold; inner citadel
- 論拠 ろんきょ grounds of an argument
- 拠出 きょしゅつ donation; contribution
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 64
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #858 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+062E0