Meaning & readings

rowboat, small boat

On’yomi テイ

Origin

The character combines the boat radical on the left, which establishes the basic meaning of "boat," with on the right, which serves as a sound hint suggesting the pronunciation テイ. The boat radical acts as a semantic classifier that groups this character with other water vessels, while the right component tells you roughly how to say the word aloud. Together, they create a character specifically for small, nimble boats like rowboats rather than large ships.

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

13 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

  • 艦艇 かんてい naval vessels; warships
  • 競艇 きょうてい kyōtei; boat race
  • 舟艇 しゅうてい boat; watercraft

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
137
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1433 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+08247