Meaning & readings

submerge, conceal, hide, lower (voice), hush

On’yomi セン
Kun’yomi ひそ.む、もぐ.る、かく.れる、くぐ.る、ひそ.める

Origin

The left side shows the water radical, indicating this character relates to water and submersion. The right component is a sound hint that tells you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together they create a word meaning to go underwater, hide, or become concealed — the idea being that things disappear when submerged in water or hidden away. The water radical is what anchors the meaning to concepts of drowning, diving, and things vanishing beneath the surface.

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

15 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

  • 原潜 げんせん nuclear submarine
  • 潜む ひそむ to lurk; to be hidden
  • 潜在 せんざい potentiality; dormancy
  • 潜水 せんすい diving; submerging
  • 潜入 せんにゅう infiltration; sneaking in
  • 潜伏 せんぷく concealment; hiding
  • 潜る くぐる to go under; to pass under
  • 潜水艦 せんすいかん submarine

Reference

Strokes
15
Kangxi radical
85
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1329 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+06F5C