字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

mistake, err, do wrong, mislead

On’yomi ゴ
Kun’yomi あやま.る、-あやま.る

Origin

This character combines speech or language (言, the left component meaning "words") with a sound hint on the right (呉, which suggests how to pronounce the character). The left part tells you the character is about language and communication, while the right part indicates the roughly how it's pronounced. When someone speaks words incorrectly or tells an untruth, that's a mistake or error. The character's shape essentially pictures the idea of misguided or wrong speech by joining these two elements.

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

誤 14 strokes

Components

  • 言 radical left
  • 呉 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

  • 誤り あやまり error; mistake
  • 誤る あやまる to make a mistake (in); to commit an error
  • 誤解 ごかい misunderstanding
  • 誤差 ごさ measurement error; calculation error
  • 誤算 ごさん miscalculation
  • 誤字 ごじ misprint; misspelling
  • 誤植 ごしょく misprint; typographical error
  • 誤認 ごにん misrecognition; mistaking (x for y)

Related kanji

Same sound component 呉
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
14
Kangxi radical
149
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1150 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+08AA4