Meaning & readings
decide, fix, agree upon, appoint
Origin
The character 決 combines water (氵) on the left with a sound component (夬) on the right that hints at its pronunciation. The water element suggests the idea of cutting through or breaking apart, like water flowing past an obstacle—a natural image for making a decisive break or choice. Over time, this visual idea of cutting through became associated with the act of deciding or fixing something firmly, the way a decision cuts off other possibilities. The right component tells you roughly how to say the character, while the water radical carries the core meaning of resolute action.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 氵
- 夬
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #71 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06C7A