Meaning & readings

uncommon, different, queerness, strangeness, wonderful, curious, unusual

On’yomi
Kun’yomi こと、こと.なる、け

Origin

The character combines two parts to express the idea of difference. The top component represents a field or grid, suggesting something orderly and defined. The bottom component means "together" or "shared." When you put them together — a field with something shared — the idea shifts to what lies outside or beyond the normal shared space, creating the meaning of "different" or "uncommon." Over time, this came to express anything strange, unusual, or wonderfully peculiar that stands apart from what is ordinary.

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

11 strokes

Components

  • radical top
  • meaning part bottom

Common words

  • 異議 いぎ objection; dissent
  • 異国 いこく foreign country
  • 異質 いしつ different (quality, nature); heterogeneous
  • 異常 いじょう abnormal; unusual
  • 異状 いじょう something wrong; something unusual
  • 異色 いしょく unique; distinctive
  • 異性 いせい the opposite sex
  • 異端 いたん heresy; nonconformism

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
102
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#631 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+07570