Meaning & readings
early, fast
On’yomi ソウ、サッ
Kun’yomi はや.い、はや、はや-、はや.まる、はや.める、さ-
Nanori さか、さわ、そ、わ
Origin
The character 早 combines two simple pictures: the sun (日, a circle with a line through it) on top and a cross or mark (十) below. In ancient times, "early" was depicted as the sun just beginning to appear or cross the horizon at the start of the day. The lower mark emphasizes this moment of emergence or crossing. Over time, the image came to mean not just the early morning, but anything that happens soon or quickly. The shape stuck even as its origin faded from view, making 早 a visual reminder of that first glimpse of sunrise.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 72
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #402 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+065E9