Meaning & readings
sideways, side, horizontal, width, woof, unreasonable, perverse
Origin
The character combines the wood radical on the left with a sound hint on the right. The wood component suggests a wooden beam or plank, which naturally lies horizontally across a structure. The right component signals the approximate pronunciation. Over time, the horizontal positioning of wooden beams in construction led this character to mean "sideways" or "horizontal" more generally, and the sense of something spreading across from side to side extended to meanings like "width" and "woof" (the cross threads in weaving).
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Common words
- 横顔 よこがお profile; face in profile
- 横綱 よこづな yokozuna (highest rank in sumo); grand champion
- 横行 おうこう being rampant; being widespread
- 横線 おうせん horizontal line
- 横断 おうだん crossing (a road, river, etc.); cutting through (e.g. of a river through a town)
- 横着 おうちゃく laziness; shirking
- 横転 おうてん toppling sideways; turning sideways
- 横道 よこみち byway; side street
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 75
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #480 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06A2A