Meaning & readings

jewel, ball

On’yomi ギョク
Kun’yomi たま、たま-、-だま
Nanori おう、だん

Origin

This character combines the shape of a royal crown or ornament (, the square with a line through it) with a dot or jewel mark (丶) placed above it. The dot likely represents a precious stone or bead being highlighted or decorated. Together, these elements suggest something valuable and ornamental, which naturally led to meanings like jewel or precious ball. The character pictures the idea of royal treasure through its visual components.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

5 strokes

Components

  • meaning part
  • meaning part

Common words

  • 玉砕 ぎょくさい honorable death; death without surrender
  • 珠玉 しゅぎょく jewel; gem
  • 水玉 みずたま drop of water
  • 目玉 めだま eyeball
  • 埼玉 さいたま Saitama (city, prefecture)
  • 玉虫色 たまむしいろ iridescent colour
  • 玉ねぎ たまねぎ onion (Allium cepa)
  • お年玉 おとしだま New Year's gift (usu. money given to a child by relatives and visitors)

Reference

Strokes
5
Kangxi radical
96
Grade
Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#737 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+07389