Meaning & readings

sparkle, clear, crystal

On’yomi ショウ
Nanori あ、あき、あきら、ひかり、まさ

Origin

This character is made of three stacked squares, each representing the sun. When you stack multiple suns together, the image suggests brightness multiplied — something shining so intensely it becomes crystalline and clear. The three-fold repetition visually conveys the idea of sparkling brilliance, which is why the character came to mean sparkle, clarity, and crystal.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.

12 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (晶).

  • meaning part

Common words

  • 液晶 えきしょう liquid crystal
  • 結晶 けっしょう crystal; crystallization
  • 水晶 すいしょう (rock) crystal; high purity quartz

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
72
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1613 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+06676