Meaning & readings

don, arrive, wear, counter for suits of clothing

On’yomi チャク、ジャク
Kun’yomi き.る、き.せる、つ.く、つ.ける

Origin

This character appears to combine the idea of clothing with the concept of arrival or attachment. The upper part represents a garment or robe, while the lower component suggests something coming into place or sticking. Over time, the visual representation evolved to show cloth or fabric being put on the body, which naturally led to meanings like "wear" and "put on clothes." The sense of "arrive" likely developed from the idea of something reaching or attaching to a destination, similar to how clothing arrives on your body when you put it on.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.

12 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (着).

  • meaning part

Common words

  • 一着 いっちゃく first place (in a race); first to arrive
  • 横着 おうちゃく laziness; shirking
  • 下着 したぎ underwear; undergarment
  • 古着 ふるぎ old clothes; secondhand clothing
  • 厚着 あつぎ wearing thick clothes; dressing warmly
  • 試着 しちゃく trying on clothes
  • 新着 しんちゃく newly arrived; newly received
  • 水着 みずぎ bathing suit; swimsuit

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
109
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#376 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 3
Unicode
U+07740