Meaning & readings

repudiate, exclude, expel, reject, line up, arrange

On’yomi ハイ
Nanori おし

Origin

The character combines a hand component on the left with a sound hint on the right. The hand element suggests an action performed with the hands — specifically, pushing or moving something away. The right component indicates the approximate pronunciation but doesn't contribute a related meaning. Together, the shape evolved to represent the act of pushing things aside, which naturally extends to the ideas of excluding, rejecting, or arranging things in a line by pushing them into order.

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

11 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • sound hint right

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

Common words

  • 排気 はいき exhaust; emission (of gas from an engine)
  • 排出 はいしゅつ discharge; evacuation
  • 排除 はいじょ exclusion; removal
  • 排水 はいすい drainage; draining
  • 排斥 はいせき rejection; expulsion
  • 排他 はいた exclusion
  • 排日 はいにち anti-Japanese
  • 排気ガス はいきガス exhaust fumes

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
64
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1047 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+06392