字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

incur, cover, veil, brood over, shelter, wear, put on, be exposed (film), receiving

On’yomi ヒ
Kun’yomi こうむ.る、おお.う、かぶ.る、かぶ.せる
Nanori ぎぬ

Origin

This character combines a clothing radical on the left with a sound hint on the right. The left part (衤) indicates the character relates to cloth or garments — things that cover your body. The right part (皮) provides a sound hint for pronunciation rather than contributing to the meaning. Together, the character came to mean "to wear" or "to cover," since clothing is what you put on or drape over yourself. The related meanings like "shelter" and "veil" developed from this core sense of something enveloping or covering you.

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

被 10 strokes

Components

  • 衤 radical left
  • 皮 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

  • 被る かぶる to put on (one's head); to wear
  • 被害 ひがい (suffering) damage; injury
  • 被告 ひこく defendant; the accused
  • 被災 ひさい suffering (from a disaster); being hit (by an earthquake, typhoon, etc.)
  • 被爆 ひばく being bombed
  • 被服 ひふく clothing
  • 被せる かぶせる to cover (with something)
  • 被害者 ひがいしゃ victim; injured party

Related kanji

Same sound component 皮
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
10
Kangxi radical
145
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#431 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+088AB